Mumbai, April 7: Maharashtra continued to be the worst-hit state in India by the coronavirus pandemic. Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday said that the state do not have enough vaccine doses at various vaccination centre and people have to be sent back due to the shortage. "We do not have enough vaccine doses at various vaccination centres, and people have to be sent back due to a shortage of doses. We have demanded from the Centre that people of age group 20-40 years must be vaccinated on priority", Tope said. COVID-19 Surge in India: Maharashtra Comprises of 7 Out of 10 Districts With Highest Coronavirus Cases in the Country.

The Maharashtra Health Minister said that at present, the state has just 14 lakh vaccine doses which will get over in 3 days. "We've asked for 40 lakh more vaccine doses per week. I'm not saying that the Center is not giving us vaccines but the speed of delivery of vaccines is slow", Tope said. Talking about the vaccine wastage, Tope said Maharashtra has a vaccine wastage rate of 3% which is half of the national average vaccine wastage rate of 6%.

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On Tuesday, Maharashtra recorded 55,469 new COVID-19 in the day, taking the overall tally in the state to 31,13,354. With 297 new fatalities, the death toll mounted to 56,330 in the state. Tope added saying that authorities suspect that there is a new strain that is affecting people in a shorter duration of time. He further informed that samples have been sent to National Centre for Disease Control to ascertain this.

Tope said that the state government is working on war footing to increase the number of beds in Pune, Mumbai, Nashik and other parts of the State. Giving details about the healthcare infrastructure in the state, Tope stated that 12 metric tonnes of oxygen is produced and over 7 tonnes of oxygen is consumed daily. "We've demanded that we should be supplied medical oxygen from nearby states. If needed, we'll close down industries that use oxygen but won't let supply of medical oxygen be affected", he said.

Maharashtra's Covid-19 cases again shot up above the half-lakh threshold for the second time in three days, with the total tally crossing 31 lakh, even as the state became the first in India to surprass the 80 lakh vaccination mark, health officials said here on Monday.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 07, 2021 12:56 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).