COVID-19 vaccination temporarily suspended in this state; know why

On Day 1 of COVID-19 vaccination drive, this state on Saturday temporarily suspended the step.

The COVID-19 vaccination on Saturday was temporarily suspended in Maharashtra, as per the Health Department of the state. The move was taken across the entire state till January 18 (Monday) due to technical issues with the CoWIN App. 

Due to the technical fault in the app, the target of 4,000 could not be met on Saturday as per officials. The COVID-19 vaccination will not be done through the offline medium.

As per an official statement, the vaccination has been postponed for two days on January 17-18. "While implementing the COVID-19 vaccination campaign today (January 16, 2021), it was noticed that technical problems were occurring in the CoWIN app. Efforts are being made by the Central Government to address this problem."

It added, "Completely digital registration is mandatory when vaccinating. The government had allowed offline registration today due to a technical problem. However, the government has directed that all further entries be made through the app. In view of this, COVID-19 vaccination has been postponed for two days in Mumbai on Sunday 17th January 2021 and Monday 18th January 2021. Vaccination will resume as soon as the Covin app is undone."

Earlier, an official told news agency PTI that as much as 65 per cent of healthcare workers who were scheduled to receive COVID-19 vaccine jab on the first day were inoculated in Maharashtra on Saturday. The rest did not turn up, he said.

"The target was to administer vaccine doses to 28,500 beneficiaries at 285 centres in the state. By the end of the day, 18,425 beneficiaries, or 65 per cent, were given the shot," said Dr Dilip Patil, State Immunization Officer.

In Hingoli district, 100 per cent turn-out was recorded for vaccination, while in Dhule, Solapur, Beed, Parbhani and Buldhana, the overall percentage for vaccination was above 90 per cent.

The indigenous Covaxin vaccine was administered to 385 healthcare workers at six centres. In other centres, Covishield vaccine was used. "The remaining lot of 35 per cent (who did not turn up despite being scheduled) will be given the jabs in the subsequent sessions," said Patil.