In a significant development, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday called up Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to get an overview of Maharashtra's war against the coronavirus, an official said. Thanking Modi, the CM appreciated his guidance in the state's COVID war right from the beginning and how the Centre had accepted certain suggestions given by Maharashtra. The Maharashtra CM has also sought the Centre's green signal to purchase COVID-19 vaccines from manufacturers other than Serum Institute of India Ltd, Pune, and Bharat Biotech International Ltd, Hyderabad. Both Modi and Thackeray also discussed the overall pandemic situation, the vaccination program, and related issues in the country. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, Maharashtra has emerged among the worst-hit in the country with a caseload of 49,96,758 which surpassed the infections of Turkey on Friday, with a total of 74,413 fatalities recorded to date, besides 654,788 'active cases' - just below France's 823,825 'active cases'.

Source: dna May 08, 2021 14:15 UTC