Telangana Healthcare Workers Below 45 Yet To Get Vaccine

Hyderabad: Hundreds of government healthcare workers are furious because they are unable to book slots for Covid-19 vaccinations. The current system of booking vaccination slots on the cowin.gov.in website and is only open to people over the age of 45.

Many doctors, especially postgraduate students, interns, and nurses working in the state-run Covid-19 hospitals, claim they are unable to schedule appointments.

On Thursday, Dr. Mahesh Kumar, president of the Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association, said, “There are many who have to get their second dose shots. It is not just common people, even doctors and nurses are running around the city trying to find a place where they can get their second shot in time.”

“Orders from the Director of Health Services to stop walk-in vaccination even for healthcare workers and other frontline staffers through self-registration do not make any sense. How can those working in Covid wards be denied vaccination? Many are due for 2nd dose. It is true that there was some hesitation in the initial days about taking the vaccines but now the situation has changed,” he said.

Kumar believes it is about time for the health department to issue circular encouraging healthcare workers to receive walk-in vaccines, or, better still, to create a dedicated vaccination centre in each district for healthcare workers and frontline warriors, so they can focus on their primary mission of saving lives.

According to vaccination data given by the director of the health services office on Thursday, up to Wednesday evening, 63,337 healthcare workers in Telangana have to get their second dose of Covid-19 vaccines.

A total of 1,65,494 front-line personnel would now receive their second doses of vaccines. However, they do not need to get them right away, because the second dose of the vaccines is given around a month after the first dose.

However, the lack of a registration option for them to get their vaccinations has left doctors, nurses, and other healthcare and frontline workers in the dark about Covid-19 vaccination.

Several doctors who talked to a media correspondent from different government hospitals said that it was not just ordinary citizens who had to spend hours in front of a screen trying to locate a slot for vaccination registration.

According to a young doctor from Osmania General Hospital, the hospital formerly had a vaccination centre that had been closed. “We are asked to work in Covid wards, and we will. But when we ask for our vaccine doses, there is no answer,” said another doctor.

If the situation persists, healthcare workers will no longer want to work in Covid wards, according to Dr. Mahesh Kumar.

VACCINATION DATA

48,055 get the first dose

 30,765 get second doses

Total 42,72,935 administered first doses

Total 6,86,220 administered second doses