Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday (April 23) demanded further medical oxygen for the state, satisfactory provide of vaccines, and permission to import Remdesivir to sort out the surge in COVID-19 circumstances, throughout a virtual meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
An official launch right here stated that the Maharashtra CM additionally demanded that oxygen be airlifted if doable, because the state at present requires 1,550 metric tonnes of medical oxygen to deal with coronavirus sufferers on daily basis and about 300 to 350 metric tons is being procured from exterior.
According to the discharge, the Chief Minister stated that as an alternative of distant states, if the provision might be organized from neighbouring states, it might be accessible early, including that vacant oxygen tankers ought to be flown again to refilling vegetation to save lots of on transportation time if it was not doable to airlift oxygen.Â
More than 60,000 sufferers in the state are on oxygen whereas there are 76,300 oxygen beds and over 25,000 further oxygen beds have been being organized, the CM informed the Prime Minister, including Maharashtra ought to get 250 to 300 metric tons of further oxygen, contemplating its requirement.
Speaking on Remdesivir shortages, Thackery is said to have stated, “It is not known how effective Remdesivir is but it surely reduces the period of hospitalisation. The state should get Remdesivir supply based on the number of patients it has.”Â
He additional stated that Maharashtra wants 70,000vials of Remdesivir on daily basis however is getting only27,000, and it ought to be allowed to import the medication, including that the state has about 5 lakh doses of vaccine in inventory as of now.
The launch quoted him as saying, “Maharashtra has 5.71 crore people in the 18 to44 age group. We will require 12 crore doses. Our vaccine manufacturers will not be able to produce the required doses in a short time. The corporate sector should also be given permission to purchase vaccines under their Corporate Social Responsibility obligation.”Â
He stated the Centre ought to present 13,000 jumbo oxygen cylinders and 1,100 ventilators to Maharashtra, and expressed confidence that the state will succeed in containing the pandemic.
No response from Centre on uniform vaccine charge: Tope
Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope stated that there was no agency response from the Centre to the demand for uniform pricing of coronavirus vaccines. He additionally stated that the Serum Institute of India has knowledgeable that it could present Covishield vaccine to the state solely after May 24 because the Centre has booked all of the manufacturing until that date.
Speaking to reporters after taking part in a virtual meeting held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the states worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic, the Health Minister stated, “All the major states have demanded `one nation-one rate’ for the vaccine, but received no firm response from the centre.”
Tope stated, “We have examples of Israel or the UK where vaccination was carried out at a large scale. If the rates are reduced, we could buy more vaccines,” including “If the demand is not met, the state will take responsibility for people under the poverty line only while others, as well as corporates, will have to take the vaccine on their own.”
Notably, Opposition events have questioned why the SII’s Covishield vaccine was procured by the Centre at Rs 150 per dose however the states must shell out Rs 400 apiece.Â
(With Agency Inputs)
