Maharashtra on Tuesday vaccinated 33,044 people, a slight rise from Monday but much lower than daily vaccinations until last week. Of these, over 20,000 were senior citizens and people above 45 years with comorbidities.
The state, meanwhile, recorded its first case of death post vaccination in Bhiwandi. Health officials said they would wait for the postmortem report before linking the death with vaccination. Sukhdev Kirdat (45), a resident of Manorama Nagar, worked as a driver with a private doctor. On Tuesday, he went for the second dose of Covishield at immunisation centre 75 at Bhagya Nagar.
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Around 15 to 20 minutes after getting the vaccination, he fainted in the observation room. A medical officer rushed him to Indira Gandhi Memorial hospital, said Dr K R Kharat, medical officer in Bhiwandi Nizampur Municipal Corporation.
Kirdat was declared dead in the hospital. His body was later shifted to JJ hospital for a postmortem. Kharat said Kirdat had suffered no adverse event after the first shot. He was taking medicines for blood pressure for three years. His family said he fainted about an year or so ago. He was also an alcoholic. But no link can be established until we get the autopsy report, he added.
So far, 40 deaths post vaccination have been reported across India. In 17 cases, no postmortem could be carried out.
As the vaccination drive enters its second phase amid rising cases in parts of the country, the Union health ministry has opened registration for vaccination on Arogya Setu app apart from the CoWIN portal.
Maharashtra on Tuesday recorded 7,863 new Covid-19 cases, with Mumbai, Pune, Amravati and Nagpur still showing a worrying rise in the caseload.
While people in rural areas have shown poor participation in the drive, in Mumbai, vaccination slots are booked until March 29. To increase the number of centres in Mumbai, at least 29 private hospitals have been given permission to begin vaccinating the general public.
Across Maharashtra, 594 vaccination booths were at work on Tuesday. The number is set be to scaled up to over 1,000 in the coming days.
Mumbai has witnessed a huge eagerness for vaccination in the last two days. On Tuesday, 6,853 senior citizens and people aged 45 to 59 years with comorbidities got jabs. Across Maharashtra, over 20,000 from this pool were vaccinated. While Nagpur recorded 1,660 and Thane 2,053, Pune, which holds the maximum number of active cases in the state, only vaccinated 1,809 people from the high-risk group.