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Telangana government studying how to cover entire populace
Telangana government studying how to cover entire populace
Administering vaccine to over 80 lakh people in the first phase in Telangana will be a systematic affair
Hyderabad: Administering vaccine to over 80 lakh people in the first phase in Telangana will be a systematic affair. But what the government is still not clear is what about administering vaccine to the rest.
What the government is still unclear is whether the Centre will take a decision to give it free across the country or will it restrict to only frontline warriors as it stated on Monday? If free vaccination is to be restricted only to the frontline warriors, will the state government be the nodal agency to provide immunisation to all other sectors?
If the Centre decides to charge for the rest of the vials, should the Telangana Government bear the entire expenditure and administer it free to all or should it charge the amount at which it would get the vaccine from the Centre?
These are some of the issues that are being studied by the Government. According to rough estimates, if the State was to bear the entire expenditure of vaccination for 4 crore population, it would cost them anything between Rs 4,000 crore to Rs 5,000 crore.
Top officials of the state government told The Hans India that an official study involving different departments mainly the State Medical Health department was taken up to ascertain the basic requirements to extend vaccination benefit to each individual in the state after the completion of the first phase vaccination programme.
It is expected that the second phase of vaccination for people above 50 years and citizens suffering from health ailments would be launched in February. After that, all other sections mainly women, middle-aged and youth would be covered.
The officials at state and district-level were compiling the data related to the health profile of aged people available with the government, people suffering from chronic diseases, and the support of health infrastructure at village level.
Sources said that a huge infrastructure and workforce requirement would have to be created to take up mass vaccination programme. The cost of vaccine available in the market was also under study. "Currently, each dose of vaccine costs Rs 200 and the price may go up once all the States launch mass vaccination scheme.
It is estimated that each dose will cost Rs 400 when the demand would increase unless the Centre decides to supply at regulated price. Each person will have to take two doses of the vaccine. The government was analysing the financial burden on the state exchequer if it has to bear the entire cost of mass vaccination.
If private or corporate hospitals are allowed to take vaccination programme, they fear that it may lead to exploitation of people. The sources say that when corona was at its peak, they had seen how corporate hospitals had fleeced the people to conduct Covid-19 tests.
If they have to be involved, officials feel that there should be a cap on the price of the vaccine and no hospital should be permitted to charge more than what has been prescribed by the Government. The Chief Minister would take a final call on the issue by the time the first phase of administering the vaccine was completed, they add.
