Maharashtra administers 5 million vaccine, becomes first state to do so; Covid-19 surge also maximum in state

Mumbai, Mar 25: Maharashtra has emerged as the leader in the COVID-19 vaccination drive as it has administered vaccine doses to 43,42,646 people, an official said on Thursday.
The state surpassed Rajasthan in the vaccination drive on March 24, he said.

Rajasthan now ranks second as it has vaccinated 43,27,874 people, the official said.

"Maharashtra tops the list of states in the country in terms of the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered," Dr Pradeep Vyas, principal secretary of Maharashtra Public Health Department, said.

The state has also administered the second dose of vaccine to 6,72,128 people, thereby reaching the cumulative vaccination figure of 50,14,774.

"Maharashtra is also the first state to cross the 50- lakh doses benchmark. We will further scale up the vaccination," he said.

It is the only state to have covered half a crore of population in terms of vaccination, Vyas added.

The cumulative vaccination figure for Rajasthan is 49,94,574.

Maharashtra reported as many as 31,855 new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, its highest single-day spike since the outbreak of the pandemic.