Stressing there might be a possibility of imposing lockdown in some areas of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday said, “The danger of Covid pandemic is increasing and therefore people who are eligible should take the vaccine.”

The process of vaccination is increasing at a very rapid rate, he said while he was interacting with media persons after taking his first shot of Covid vaccine at the Maharashtra government run JJ Hospital.

The Chief Minister said that in view of the possibility of a lockdown, people who are eligible should take the vaccine and avoid crowding in public places. “But still the situation has not gone out of control therefore. People don’t have to worry or have any confusion about the safety of the vaccine.”

In a tweet Thackeray said, “There is no need for anyone to have any fear or confusion about the Covid vaccine. I have just been vaccinated & I am standing right in front of you. So, it is my humble appeal to all my citizens who are eligible for vaccination to go get it without any doubt in their minds.”

Lockdown in Nagpur

Meanwhile, Nagpur district Guardian Minister, Nitin Raut said that strict lockdown needs to be enforced in Nagpur from March 15 to March 21 in view of rise in Covid cases. Amid a spike in Covid Maharashtra government on Thursday has decided to impose a lockdown in the district between the two dates. Only essential services such as milk, vegetable and fruit shops will stay open, according to an order issued by the Nagpur District Administration.

According to the data shared by the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme of Public Health Department, on Wednesday, 13,659 new cases in the state, while 10-days ago (March 1) the number of fresh infections reported were 6,397 in the state. On March 1 there were 77,618 active Covid cases, which rose to 99,008 until Wednesday.

Until Wednesday 20.99 lakh Covid patients having been discharged after full recovery in the state. The recovery rate in the state is 93.21 per cent. There were also 54 Covid-19 deaths reported in the state on Thursday with case fatality rate of 2.34 per cent. Currently, 4.71 lakh people are in home quarantine and 4,244 people are in institutional quarantine.

March 1 also saw the commencement of the vaccination programme for non-medical and non-frontline members of the population who are aged between 45 and 60 years with co-morbid conditions and senior citizens. The programme is running concurrently with medical and frontline workers in the same vaccination centres.

On March 1, only 946 beneficiaries with co morbidities aged between 45 and 60 years and 3,777 above 60 years received their first jab of the vaccine. On that day, 27,155 persons were vaccinated taking the total number of people vaccinated rose to 12.28 lakh. On the first day, three major complaints of COVIN app not being very user friendly were raised, which have now been ironed out.

The available data until March 9 shows that 1.48 lakh people were vaccinated taking the grand total of the people vaccinated to 21.25 lakh. Finer data of beneficiary population vaccinated aged between 45 and 60 years with co-morbid conditions and senior citizens is not available.

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