Maharashtra expected to vaccinate 50,000 health workers on day 1 of drive

Mumbai, Jan 12: The Maharashtra government expects around 50,000 of its health workers to be vaccinated on the first day of the world's biggest COVID-19 vaccination drive.

The first batch of the Covishield vaccine left the Serum Institute in Pune and the drive will begin across the country on January 16. 100 people are set to be vaccinated in each of the 511 centres in the state.

Mumbai has 72 centres while in Pune there are 55.

A HT report says that the state is expecting 1.6 million doses for 800,000 workers in the next two months.

The state has set a target of 50,000 health workers to be vaccinated on the first day itself. Each of the 511 centres will have a batch of 100 health workers enrolled for vaccination and some of the health workers may opt out of the vaccination. But the health workers are expected to set an example before the common man gets vaccinated and there is no need to be scared as the vaccines are safe, state health minister, Rajesh Tope said.