With Centre's free supply, Telangana to increase vaccination centres

Hyderabad: With the Centre announcing free supply of vaccine to all States, the Telangana Health department is contemplating increasing vaccination centres. It is likely to follow the Delhi model and convert all election booths into vaccination centres. This issue is likely to be discussed at the cabinet meeting scheduled to be held on Tuesday. At present, the government is administering the vaccine at 684 centres across the State. Welcoming the Centre's decision to supply free vaccine, officials said it will help the States to plan and enhance vaccination programme for all who are 18 plus. Dr G Srinivasa Rao, Director of Public Health, said the vaccination programme can cover all eligible people within 100 days if vaccines are provided in time.

Vaccination centres can be increased, mobile vaccination centres can be launched for rural areas and 10 lakh people can be vaccinated in a single day, he claimed.

He said the Health department has about nine lakh doses of vaccine in stock at present which can meet the requirement for one week. He said they were getting replenishment of stocks in time, but the quantity was not enough.

The government dashboard shows that close to 70 lakh people have been vaccinated in the State till June 6. This includes vaccination done in both government and private vaccination centres. Dr Rao said 4.69 lakh in the age group of 18 to 44 were covered under the high-risk group within a week.

He further said the Telangana government had procured 15 lakh doses from the State funds to cover the high-risk people recently. The Health Department has already placed an order for 10 lakh Covaxin and 5 lakh Covishield doses and paid Rs 57 lakh.

Almost 1.8 crore of the total population in the State is above 18 and only 6.95 from that age group got vaccinated, he added.