All of Telangana Vaccinated with Covid First Dose, Says Harish Rao

Telangana achieved 100 percent coverage of the first dose of Covid-19 vaccination on Tuesday. T. Harish Rao, the state's health minister, revealed that Telangana is the first among states with a big population to provide the first dosage of the vaccine to all eligible recipients in the targeted population. 

Only states with a lower population or Union Territories, he noted, had reached this milestone, and the national average for vaccination dosage is 90%. The first dose was given to 87,039 people on Tuesday, bringing the total to 2.77 crore.

To celebrate the event, the minister, Secretary of Health S.A.M. Rizvi, Director of Public Health Dr. G. Srinivasa Rao, and other officials cut a cake. According to the minister, 66.1 percent of the targeted population has received both doses. This was three percentage points higher than the national average of 63%. Rao stated that the Health Department and other ministries will now focus on the second dosage, since approximately 27 lakh people had yet to receive it. He hoped to reach 100 percent coverage by the second or third week of January. "If a second dosage is required, health staff will go door to house," he added.

The minister announced Covid vaccination for 15 to 18 years children will be launched on January 3.  Vaccination arrangements will be arranged in primary health care centres and government-run hospitals. In Hyderabad and other municipal corporations, the state would enable online bookings through the Cowin site. Children can walk into areas other than municipal corporations and get the vaccine.  The state has 62.79 lakh children aged 15 to 18. The minister declared that people over the age of 60, as well as frontline warriors, will receive a booster dosage beginning January 10. The state has 41.60 lakh people above the age of 60, with 6.34 lakh frontline warriors such as health professionals, municipal officials, police officers, and media staff.