Rush for booster dose Premium

As on December 28, the cumulative number of people administered with Dose 1 in Telangana stands at 3.24 crore, Dose 2 is 3.15 crore and precaution dose was administered to 1.32 crore people.

As the news of rising number of COVID cases in China started pouring in, Telangana saw a sharp rise in the number of people rushing to take their jabs.

On December 19, 329 people took their vaccine in Telangana. The number jumped to 1,376 on December 20, 1,692 on December 21, 2,140 on December 22, 3,314 on December 23, and 4,004 on December 24. Though there was a slight drop in number on December 25 with 2,016 doses administered, it increased to 2,487 on December 26, 3,687 on December 27 and 4,302 doses on December 28.

With news reports on the COVID situation in China, there seems to be a panic like situation in India. The Central and State governments have taken stock of the situation and have started to put their entire focus on increasing the vaccination coverage.

As on December 28, the cumulative number of people administered with Dose 1 in Telangana stands at 3.24 crore, Dose 2 is 3.15 crore and precaution dose was administered to 1.32 crore people. The total doses administered in the State stand at 7.72 crore.

Health Minister T. Harish Rao conducted a high-level review meeting on the COVID crisis recently. He said, “There is no need to worry about the COVID situation but there is a need to be alert. Everyone is advised to observe personal hygiene and those who have not taken the vaccine, should take it immediately followed by the booster dose.”

During the meeting, the Minister was explained about the variants currently prevalent in China. He instructed officials to send the samples of positive cases to Gandhi Hospital for genome sequencing, as per the Central government guidelines. He also ordered screening of passengers at the airport.

A few days after that, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya held a video conference with the health ministers and officials from all States. During the meeting, Mr. Rao urged the Central government to supply extra doses of booster vaccine as Telangana was falling short of them. He informed that the State has 8 lakh doses of Covaxin, 80,000 doses of Covishield and zero doses of Corbevax in stock at the moment. Apart from this, it was learnt that Telangana leads in the administration of booster dose to its population in the entire country. The State has a booster dose coverage of 47.6% while the national average stands at 23.8%.