The Chief Minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray in a video conference with the Prime Minister on Wednesday requested for more vaccination centres in the state so that the drive could gather more speed. Permission was also sought for the Centre for Mumbai based Haffkine Bio-Pharmaceutical Corporation Ltd to make the Covid vaccines. About 126 million vaccines could be made by the company, a press statement issued by the Chief Minister’s office said.

The Haffkine Bio-Pharmaceutical Corporation Ltd is a Maharashtra Government undertaking based in Mumbai. It has developed a number of bacterial and viral vaccines. It is an offshoot of Haffkine Institute, one of the oldest biomedical research institutes in the country, which was established in 1899. The Institute is named after the Ukrainian scientist, Waldemar Haffkine, who invented the plague vaccine.

To this, the Prime Minister in a media statement showed support and said that encouragement would be given to organizations that can produce vaccines in all the states.

The CM requested that the manufacture of Covid vaccine should be allowed from Haffkine Biopharmaceutical Corporation Ltd based on technology transfer under the guidance of ICMR so that the vaccine can be manufactured directly or can work on a fill-and-finish basis, the statement said.

In Maharashtra, on an average, 1,38,957 doses are given every day. At present 35.52 lakh dosages have been given in the state and 31.38 lakh doses are available. The Chief Minister said that if 3 lakh doses are given daily, then the stock will last 10 days, and so it should be increased. The State has started conducting RT-PCR tests on a large scale and out of the total tests, 70 per cent of the tests are done in this manner, which is also satisfactory as compared to other states, the Union Health Secretary said in today's meeting, the statement said.

Guidance on sudden infection growth

Due to rapidly rising cases in some districts, the Chief Minister urged the Prime Minister to shed light on the sudden increase in the number of cases. He also asked the Prime Minister to provide guidance on whether it is a mutation or some other form of the virus. The Chief Minister also demanded that all the people above the age of 45 years, whether they are having co-morbid conditions or not should be vaccinated.