Anand Mahindra suggests vaccinating all in Maharashtra to battle Covid-19

Industrialist Anand Mahindra took to Twitter to express his concern about the increase in coronavirus cases in Maharashtra and suggested that the state needs "emergency permission" to vaccinate all who are willing to receive the vaccine.

The Mahindra group president tagged a news report, adding that Maharashtra is the "nerve centre" of the country's economic activity. He also said that more lockdowns would 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 tweeted, tagging the Office of the Prime Minister and Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan.

In another tweet, responding to a comment, Mahindra added that he agreed that aggressive testing was the need of the moment and said we need to "speed up" vaccination.

Mahindra's tweet comes as Maharashtra battles a sharp increase in coronavirus infections, resulting in a stricter Covid protocol in the state. Maharashtra recorded more than 16,000 cases on Monday, the highest this year.

Several districts such as Pune and Hingoli are under partial closure with a night curfew imposed to control the virus.

Ananda Mahindra, who regularly tweets to 8.3 million followers of him, has updated his Twitter bio to "President and team member, Covid-19 Fighters, Mahindra Group". Thousands quickly liked his tweet; many seem to agree with his emergency vaccination plan, while many do not.

India recorded 24,492 new COVID-19 cases today, recording more than 20,000 cases for the sixth day in a row, bringing the infection count to more than 1.14 crore, the Union Health Ministry said.