Vaccination to start at 285 centres in Maharashtra on January 16

The COVID-19 vaccination drive will start at 285 centres across Maharashtra on Saturday, a health official said.

Two centres -- one in Mumbai and another in Jalna -- will be part of virtual interaction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi who will launch the drive nationwide.

The inoculation drive in the state will start at 9 am and by the time it ends for the day at 5 pm, it is expected that some 28,500 people would have received the jab.

"We are trying to administer the vaccine to 100 persons at each centre. So we will be able to cover 28,500 health workers on the first day," said Pradeep Vyas, principal secretary, state health department.

The centre set up in Mumbai's Cooper Hospital and another at Jalna district hospital have been selected for Prime Minister's virtual interaction.

In Jalna, state health minister Rajesh Tope will be present to oversee the drive, Vyas said.

While Maharashtra had earlier planned to set up 511 vaccination centres, the number was scaled down to 350 after Tope's video conference with Central health officials last week. The number of centres was further reduced to 285 due to poor network and other issues, officials said.

State Immunisation Officer Dr Dilip Patil said Bharat Biotech's Covaxin will be administered in six centres while the remaining will use Serum Institute of India's Covishield vaccine.

The state has received 9.63 lakh doses of Covishield and 20,000 doses of Covaxin.

Officials said around 7.86 lakh health care workers from government,private and armed forces facilities have registered for the drive so far.