Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday said the Maharashtra government could vaccinate the State’s entire eligible population by August 31 if the Central government ensured consistent supply of vaccine doses.
Mr. Pawar also alleged that the Centre had allotted more vaccines to the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, while taking stock of the COVID-19 situation in Pune division.
He said the State government was mulling resumption of classes at medical colleges with the caveat that students, and teaching and the non-teaching staff are fully vaccinated. He said he would be holding a meeting with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and State Medical Education Minister Amit Deshmukh in this regard.
He said, “We are considering this decision to ensure that the State does not face a shortage of doctors. Each year, thousands of doctors graduate from medical colleges, and if classes are not conducted, new professionals will not pass out, creating a serious shortage.”
Mr. Pawar added that there would be no relaxations in the district owing to a surge in cases in urban pockets such as Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.
“Pune city’s case positivity rate was 4.6% a few days ago, but has risen to 5.3%, while for Pimpri-Chinchwad it has risen to 5.4% from 5.1%. We were thinking of reopening malls and relaxing timings, but ‘Level 3’ restrictions will remain,” he said.
Cases outweigh recoveries
The State on Friday recorded 8,753 new COVID-19 cases as opposed to 8,385 recoveries, taking its active case tally to 1,16,867. A total of 156 deaths pushed the total death toll to 1,22,353. The State’s case fatality rate stands at 2.01%, while the case positivity rate has declined to 14.44%.
The State’s total cases have reached 60,79,352, while its cumulative recoveries have risen to 58,36,920, with the recovery rate standing at 96.01%.
Pune reported 1,282 new cases, taking its total cases to 10,57,500. As per State Health Department figures, 16 deaths were reported as the total death toll rose to 16,823. As per district authorities, the active case tally rose to nearly 10,300, while the total death toll had reached 17,949.
Mumbai reported 673 new cases to take its total case tally to 7,23,551, while the active count rose to 12,905. As many as 27 fatalities took the city's death toll to 15,499.
Kolhapur in western Maharashtra recorded the highest cases in the State yet again, with over 1,700 new cases taking its total case tally to 1,59,973, of whom 12,767 are active. As many as 17 deaths saw the cumulative death toll rise to 4,719.
Published - July 02, 2021 11:10 pm IST
