Today for the first time the people in the country have seen a vial of Covid vaccine. In the past few months people were only hearing about it. In the first phase of the vaccination programme Covid warriors, which include medical personnel, police officers and staff of revenue department will get the vaccines, said Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday.

He was addressing the media after inaugurating the mass vaccination in Maharashtra. By Friday evening the preparations had been completed at 285 centres in the state for vaccinating about 28,500 health workers.

Also read: India’s Covid-19 vaccine campaign off to a roaring start

Maharashtra Government has received 9.63 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine and 20,000 doses of Covaxin vaccine, which have been distributed to all the districts. Vaccinations will be given daily from 9 am to 5 pm.

The Chief Minister said that after frontline staff is vaccinated, people who are above 50 years and those below 50 years but suffering from comorbid will get vaccinated.

On the issue of safety and efficacy of the vaccines, which was raised by the media, he said that the complete decision of choosing the vaccines has been undertaken by the Union Health Ministry. As the Prime Minister himself has inaugurated the mass vaccination campaign today, therefore there should be no doubt in peoples minds about the safety of the vaccines.

Also read: At Mumbai's Cooper hospital, health workers cheer as vaccines arrive

On the costs of the vaccine to be paid by the people, Thackeray said that today it is for free for Covid warriors but in the coming days the picture will be clear from the Central Government about the costs.

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