Industrialist Anand Mahindra took to Twitter to voice his concern about rising coronavirus cases in Maharashtra and suggested that the state needs "emergency permission" to vaccinate everyone willing to take the jab.
The Chairman of the Mahindra group tagged a news report and added that Maharashtra is the "nerve-centre" of the country's economic activity. He also said that more lockdowns will hamper the state.
"Over half the new daily cases are in Maharashtra. The state is the nerve-centre of the country's economic activity & more lockdowns will be debilitating. Maharashtra needs emergency permission to vaccinate EVERY willing person. No shortage of vaccines," Anand Mahindra, 65, tweeted tagging the Prime Minister's Office and Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan.
In a second tweet, responding to a comment, Mr Mahindra added that he agreed aggressive testing was the need of the hour but also said we need to "speed up" vaccination.
Mr Mahindra's tweet comes as Maharashtra battles a steep spike in coronavirus infections resulting in stricter Covid protocol in the state. Maharashtra recorded over 16,000 cases on Monday - the highest this year.
Several districts like Pune and Hingoli are under a partial shutdown with night curfew imposed on them to control the raging virus.
Ananda Mahindra, who regularly tweets to his 8.3 million followers, has updated his Twitter bio to "Chairman & Team member, Covid-19 Fighters, Mahindra Group". His tweet was quickly liked by thousands; many seem to agree with his emergency vaccination plan, while many don't.
India recorded 24,492 new COVID-19 cases today, registering more than 20,000 cases for the sixth day in a row, taking the infection tally past 1.14 crore, the Union health ministry said.
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