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Tag: Rajesh Tope

  • Maharashtra carefully watching Covid development: Health Minister Rajesh Tope

    By Express News Service

    MUMBAI:  In the wake of the Central authorities’s recommendation to the state to observe and management any rising unfold of coronavirus, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday stated the state of affairs within the state is beneath management and there’s no must panic.

    The Centre has suggested Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra and Mizoram to take care of a strict watch and take pre-emptive motion, if required, within the areas of concern. Tope, whereas claiming that the state is conserving a detailed tab on the state of affairs, stated they may make the “right decision at the right time”.

    He stated that although sporting a face masks isn’t necessary within the state, senior residents and individuals with comorbidities should cowl their faces after they enterprise outdoors as a precaution. Maharashtra on Wednesday recorded 162 recent coronavirus circumstances, greater than half of them in Mumbai alone, whereas no new loss of life linked to the an infection was registered, the well being division stated. With this, the state’s general Covid tally rose to 78,76,203, whereas the loss of life  toll remained unchanged at  1,47,830.

    “There were 137 cases (on Tuesday) in Maharashtra, including 85 in Mumbai. The state had earlier seen 60,000 cases a day. So, the present situation in the state is under control and there is no need to panic,” Tope stated. “The vaccination coverage is good and the state government is encouraging inoculation of children in the age groups of 12 to 15 and 15 to 18 years,” he stated. 

  • Vaccines falling quick, Maharashtra Health Minister’s Jalna district obtained additional doses

    From April 7 to 9, when a number of districts in Maharashtra needed to shut down their vaccination centres on account of scarcity of vaccines, Jalna stood out, with a surplus that may final at the very least 10 extra days.
    Home to Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope, Jalna district obtained 60,000 vaccine doses greater than its allotment of 17,000 when recent provides of 26.77 lakh doses had been obtained by the state from the Centre on March 31 — and distributed to all districts.
    Sources stated Tope referred to as Health Department officers and requested them to extend the allocation to his district to 77,000 doses. Tope advised The Indian Express “no particular district was preferred” and that if Jalna obtained extra shares, this was accomplished “to encourage more vaccination”. “We distributed doses to primary health centres and sub centres to increase vaccination,” the minister stated, noting that in opposition to the state common of 27% of the goal inhabitants receiving vaccinations, Jalna had achieved simply 18.1% on the time.
    But this went in opposition to each the standards on which the Maharashtra public well being division distributes doses: a district’s every day efficiency of vaccination and lively instances. On March 31, Jalna had 773 lively instances, decrease than 30 districts. In phrases of every day vaccinations, its determine of 600-1,000 until March finish put it among the many 10 lowest-performing districts.

    State immunisation officer Dr DN Patil diverted 60,000 doses from Aurangabad to Jalna on April 1. Aurangabad, additionally one of many six divisional storage centre for vaccines within the state, had obtained 1.95 lakh doses, based mostly on its 7,000-8,000 every day vaccinations.
    At that time Jalna was conducting simply 600-1000 vaccinations a day. At this price, it had sufficient vaccine doses to final 15-18 days when different districts had shares just for five-10 days. Following the additional doses, Jalna elevated every day vaccinations to three,000-5,000 within the first week of April.
    Meanwhile, between April 8 and 9, officers throughout Maharashtra districts made frantic requires extra provides to the state well being division. Finally, Tope allowed switch of 15,000 doses from Jalna to close by districts.
    Immunisation officer Dr Patil didn’t reply to calls or textual content messages.
    Jalna’s neighbouring districts obtained decrease doses regardless of performing higher than it on every day vaccination numbers and having extra Covid instances. Beed, that within the final week of March was vaccinating 3000-5,000 individuals per day and had 4,296 lively instances, obtained 30,800 doses on April 1; Latur with 3,000-5,000 every day vaccinations and 5,931 lively instances obtained 53,800 doses; and Parbhani with 2,000-3,000 vaccinations and 4,944 instances obtained 21,500 doses.
    Only 9 districts with vaccination numbers greater than Jalna (between 8,000-40,000) obtained extra shares than it on April 1.
    Sources stated Tope “insisted” on allotting Jalna extra inventory on March 31 as a result of Maharashtra had obtained an enormous provide from the Centre. Before that in addition to later, the state obtained restricted shares ranging between 5-14 lakh doses.
    Among the districts and companies that shut down a number of vaccination centres between April 7 and 9 as a consequence of zero shares had been Satara, Navi Mumbai, Mumbai and Sangli. On April 7, Jalna had over 50,000 doses. Mumbai needed to shut 25 personal centres on April 8 and 50 centres on April 9.
    District well being officers stated they requested the state authorities, together with Tope, to urgently ship extra shares. “We reasoned with the minister that stocks in Jalna would sit for days as other districts suffered. He eventually agreed to divert stocks from Jalna,” an official stated.

    On April 8, Jalna transferred 15,000 doses, to Washim, Yavatmal and Parbhani. “A few centres could not function for a day-and-a-half,” stated Dr Avinash Aaher, Washim’s district well being officer.
    Dr Vivek Khatgaonkar, district well being officer in Jalna, stated doses had been moved to different districts when scarcity was reported. In Yavatmal, district well being officer Dr Hari Pawar stated their provide is at all times restricted.
    Incidentally, on April 7 and eight, Tope red-flagged the acute vaccine scarcity in Maharashtra, receiving in flip a trenchant response from Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan that the state had sufficient shares.
    Till May 2, Jalna had administered 2.06 lakh doses, whereas bettering its every day capability to 13,000 doses.

  • 7.8 well being staff to be inoculated in a month: Maharashtra Government

    On Tuesday, when Maharashtra acquired its first tranche of 9.83 lakh vaccine doses, State Health Minister Rajesh Tope mentioned it should take a month to inoculate the state’s 7.86 lakh healthcare staff. The state authorities plans to vaccinate 35,000 healthcare staff on January 16, the primary day of the rollout.
    Tope mentioned that Maharashtra is able to spend on procurement of vaccines if the Centre stops provide after providing the preliminary batches. Refuting the claims that he believes that the preliminary provide is inadequate, as being reported by a piece of media, the minister claimed: “We have 7.8 lakh registered healthcare workers. To give them two doses 28 days apart, we need 15.6 lakh doses. About 10 per cent doses are expected to get wasted during the immunisation. Considering that, we need over 17.1 lakh doses for the healthcare workers. We have received 9.83 lakh doses, and we expect more stock to arrive soon. We don’t know by when.” Of 9.83 lakh doses, 9.63 lakh are of Covishield from Serum Institute of India, whereas 20,000 are Covaxin doses from Bharat Biotech.
    Maharashtra earlier finalised 511 vaccination centres throughout the state, however following path from the Centre, it has decreased the full centres to 358. “There were multiple reasons for reducing the number of centres. Since this is a new vaccine, we wanted adverse events to be managed at the hospital level so that proper monitoring can be done,” Tope mentioned.]

    The state authorities plans to finish the first-dose vaccination of seven.86 lakh well being staff in a month. Teams from the United Nations Development Programme can be roped in to deal with logistical points on the vaccination centres.
    Dr Archana Patil, director of Family Welfare within the Directorate of Health Services, mentioned they’re slowly scaling up the immunisation course of to cowl all the inhabitants in phases. “We don’t want to give vaccines to everyone at one go. The stock of 9.83 lakh doses will be used for half of the registered health workers so that both doses of the same vaccine are given to each person. When the next stock comes, we will rope in more beneficiaries,” she mentioned, including that there is no such thing as a hurry in immunising all beneficiaries. “We also want to monitor the vaccinated population.”
    Tope mentioned, on January 16, he’ll congratulate Prime Minister Narendra Modi and work together with him from the Jalna vaccination centre the place a two-way communication system has been arrange between vaccine beneficiaries and the Prime Minister.
    The minister has added that the state will procure vaccines by itself when the Centre stops the availability. “During our video conference, the Prime Minister said they will wait for 60 per cent of vaccination (of health workers and front line workers) to get over before further talks on vaccine supply are taken up. We will wait until then,” Tope mentioned.
    The Union well being ministry has assured all states that it’s going to present the preliminary inventory to immunise 30 crore precedence inhabitants comprising healthcare and frontline staff. Maharashtra has an inventory of seven.86 lakh well being staff and about 20 lakh frontline staff, together with police, municipal employees, defence, BEST drivers and conductors.

    A senior official from the Maharashtra well being ministry mentioned the Centre has been supportive in procuring and distributing private protecting gear and N-95 masks on the onset of pandemic. “We are, therefore, not planning state-level procurement of vaccines yet. The Centre has assured us to provide some stocks, and we will wait for them to send,” the official added.
    The well being minister has indicated that vaccines have to be free for the poor. “Those who are vulnerable can’t be left to their fate. We have not prepared any budget for procurement of vaccines yet but it can be prepared through a contingency fund,” he mentioned.
    The authorities has excluded pregnant girls, these vulnerable to allergic reactions and kids aged beneath 18 years from vaccination.

  • Maharashtra: 4 dists to carry mock Covid vaccination drive at this time

    Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Friday mentioned the state will maintain a two-hour-long dry run for Covid-19 vaccination at Nandurbar, Pune, Jalna and Nagpur on Saturday.
    In every of the 12 centres allotted within the 4 districts, 25 individuals will probably be vaccinated on a trial foundation. A dry run is a trial carried out to check a process, discover doable hiccups or difficulties within the course of, and fixing the problems. The drill won’t use an actual vaccine.
    The Oxford-Astra Zeneca vaccine is near get approval in India with an professional committee in Central Drug Standard Control Organisation recommending its emergency use authorisation with situations. The ultimate approval will come from Drugs Controller General of India. The vaccine rollout is anticipated to start in early January, state officers mentioned.
    “We will observe each beneficiary for half an hour post the mock vaccination to look for adverse effects and also see how the centres coordinate,” mentioned Tope.
    In the mock run, an SMS will probably be despatched to the beneficiary confirming the date and time of vaccination. The beneficiary’s identification will probably be confirmed and registration achieved on the centre. After vaccination, she or he will probably be noticed in a separate room.
    Dr Nitin Borke, the Nandurbar District Health Officer, mentioned: “We have three centres in Nandurbar where the dry run will be carried out. We will depute five vaccinators in each of the three centres.”
    While the primary two officers will register the beneficiary and confirm his identification, one will administer the vaccine and the remaining two will observe them publish vaccination.

    Tope mentioned points arising in these centres will probably be labored upon holding in thoughts the true immunisation drive.
    In Pune, the district hospital in Aundh, a major well being centre (PHC) and Jijamata hospital in Pimpri-Chinchwad have been designated for the mock drill. In Nagpur, Daga hospital, a rural hospital and an city PHC have been chosen. While in Nandurbar, a PHC, Navapur sub-district hospital and the district hospital will conduct the drill, in Jalna, the district hospital, sub-district hospital and a PHC will probably be roped in.