Maharashtra to vaccinate all its citizens against COVID-19 for free

The Maharashtra government will vaccinate all its citizens against COVID-19 free of cost, cabinet minister Nawab Malik announced on Sunday. 

This comes amid a steep rise of COVID-19 cases in the state of Maharashtra. The state, worst hit by the second wave of coronavirus, has been recording over 65,000 cases of COVID-19 daily over the past few days. 

Maharashtra is currently under a lockdown till May 1, imposed to curb the exponential rise in COVID-19 cases. The Central Government on Monday had announced that it will start the vaccination of all above 18 from May 1, the registration of which started on the Co-Win portal on Saturday.

Also Read | Delhi COVID lockdown extended by a week, to continue till May 3

Maharashtra on Saturday recorded 67,160 cases of COVID-19 and it has currently 6,94,480 active coronavirus infections. 

With 676 new deaths from COVID-19, the death toll reached 63,928 in Maharashtra. The caseload in Maharashtra has risen to 4,228,836.

Mumbai recorded 5,867 new cases and 71 fatalities, taking its case tally to 622,146 and the toll to 12,726.

In the last seven days, India has recorded more than two million cases — an increase of 58% on the previous week, according to data compiled by AFP.