Target is to cover 1 lakh people for vax every day

Koti: The Health authorities of Telangana on Thursday began administering Covid vaccine to those above 45 years. As the vaccination drive entered the third phase, people in the new category lined up at the vaccination centers across the state to take the jab.

Director of Public Health and Family Welfare G Srinivasa Rao said they plan to inoculate one lakh people every day. Currently, about 50,000 are being vaccinated every day. There are an estimated 80 lakh people in the state who are above 45 years of age. Among them, about 10 lakh people having health issues as well as frontline and health workers have already received the vaccine.

The third phase is expected to give a boost to the Covid fight amid resurgence in the new infections. The state has been witnessing a worrying surge in Covid cases over the last few weeks. The daily count of Covid cases reached close to 900-mark from under 200 cases a month ago.

Worried over the second wave in parts of the country, the Centre has asked states to increase the pace of vaccination. Telangana health officials said the vaccination will be done at 1,000 government centers and 250 private centers across all 33 districts.

"We have decided to vaccinate one lakh people daily. We are even trying to make the vaccines available in primary health care centers," said the director of public health.

Arrangements are being made to vaccinate 100 people at each center every day. It is likely to take 44 to 50 days to complete the vaccine drive for people aged above 45 years.

The department hopes to cover all the beneficiaries by the end of July. The state government has so far received about 25 lakh vaccine doses, including 4.5 lakh Covaxin. Each Covisheild vial has 20 doses and Covaxin has 12 doses.

The health workers engaged in vaccination drive have been asked to check the vaccine wastage. Since the vaccine has to be given within 30 minutes of opening the vial, the vaccination officers have been advised to wait for the turnout of the number of people equivalent to the number of doses in each vial.

The vaccine wastage rate in Telangana is 2.85%. Meanwhile, the health department announced on Thursday that it has so far given 12,64,026 doses in the state. Of these, 33,689 were administered on Wednesday.