Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Thursday informed that the government will launch Mission Kavach Kundal from 8th to 14th October in the state under which a massive vaccination drive will be followed.
He also informed that the state govt has set a target of 15 lakhs people to be vaccinated every day.
"While the process of unlocking has started in stages in the state on the one hand. However, there is still a risk of a third wave and experts say it is necessary to vaccinate the entire population as soon as possible. Against this backdrop, while the central government has set a target of giving 100 crore doses of vaccine across the country till Dussehra, the state government has announced a 'Mission Kavach Kundal' scheme," the minister added.
Tope also said that the Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandviya also spoke to him and expressed the expectation that the state should play a major role in this target of achieving 100 crore vaccination.
"For this, we are going to implement Mission Kavach Kundal Yojana from 8th to 14th October. We have set a target of at least 15 lakh vaccinations every day," he added.
Maharashtra on Wednesday reported 2,876 new coronavirus positive cases and 90 fatalities while 2,763 patients recovered, a state health department official said.
Maharashtra witnessed a marginal rise in the number of COVID-19 cases but the fatalities rose sharply compared to Tuesday when the state had logged 2,401 infections and 39 deaths.
With the new additions, the tally of infections in Maharashtra rose to 65,67,791, the death toll to 1,39,362 and the count of recoveries to 63,91,662, leaving the state with 33,181 active cases, the official said.
Maharashtra's case recovery rate now stands at 97.32 per cent while the fatality rate is 2.12 per cent.
With 1,50,584 new tests, the number of samples tested so far in Maharashtra went up to 5,96,19,637, the official said.
Across Maharashtra, six districts and two municipal corporations did not report any new COVID-19 case, the official said.
At 624, the Mumbai district reported the highest number of new cases during the day in Maharashtra.
Among the eight regions of Maharashtra, the Mumbai region reported the highest 1,110 cases, followed by 948 infections in the Pune region.
Nashik region logged 480 new cases, Kolhapur region 186, Latur region 74, Aurangabad region 54, Nagpur region 16 and Akola region eight cases.
At 60, the Pune region reported the highest number of COVID-19 fatalities out of the 90 in Maharashtra, the official said. Mumbai region and Nashik region each reported 11 fatalities, the official said.
Nagpur region did not report any fresh COVID-19 fatality. The Kolhapur region reported four deaths and Latur region two. Akola region and Aurangabad region each added one COVID-19 fatality.
Mumbai city witnessed 624 new cases and seven deaths. Pune city logged 192 mew cases and 10 fatalities.
Among the total 33,181 active cases in Maharashtra, the Pune district has the highest 8,929 active cases, the official added.
Among the total 63,91,662 recovered patients in Maharashtra, the highest number of recoveries at 11,17,074 are also reported from the Pune district.
Coronavirus figures in Maharashtra are as follows: Total cases 65,67,791, new cases 2,876, total deaths 1,39,362, fresh deaths 90, total recoveries 63,91,662, active cases 33,181, total number of tests 5,96,19,637.
