The decision to provide free Covid vaccines to all the people in the age group of 18 to 44 in Maharashtra was taken at the state cabinet meeting on Wednesday afternoon, a media statement issued by the Chief Minister Office said.

At the meeting, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray made the announcement and said that the State Health Department is planning for the vaccination programme and the citizens will be informed about it in advance. Vaccines from Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech are currently available, and in consultation with the companies is under way so that more and more vaccines will be made available in the State.

The administration has been fighting the Covid battle for the last one year. Vaccination has been started in the state since January in collaboration with the Centre. Till date, more than 1.5 crore people in the age group of 45 and above have been vaccinated, Thackeray said in the statement.

At the meeting Haffkine Bio-Pharmaceutical Corporation Ltd, which is a Maharashtra Government company, was also given permission to start a project for manufacturing Covid vaccine.

The production technology for the Covid vaccine manufacturing would be provided by the Union Ministry of Science and Technology and by Bharat Biotech International Ltd, Hyderabad. The project would be implemented at a cost of ₹154 crore and the production will take place at the Parel facility of Haffkine Bio-Pharmaceutical Corporation. For the project, the State Government will provide ₹94 crore from the contingency fund and ₹65 crore would be provided by the Centre, the statement said.

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