VIJAYAWADA: Finally, the Centre has responded to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s request for more doses of Covid vaccine for Tika Utsav and dispatched 4.4 lakh doses of Covishield to AP. The Covid vaccine consignment arrived at Gannavaram Airport from Mumbai and Pune on Monday night. Another consignment of 2 lakh doses of Covaxin will reach the State on Tuesday morning. With the arrival of new stock of Covid vaccine, the State government has decided to conduct Tika Utsav in a full fledged manner on April 14. There will be no vaccination on Tuesday on account of Telugu New Year Ugadi.
The DMHOs of all the 13 districts have been asked to make elaborate arrangements for Tika Utsav on Wednesday. A door to door campaign will be conducted on Tuesday urging all the eligible people to get vaccinated and their centre of choice will be taken into consideration.
According to sources in the Medical and Health Department, vaccination will be conducted at 1,400 session centres across the State on Wednesday. Priority will be given to those aged above 45 years and each district will be given a vaccination target. Covid shots will be administered to beneficiaries from 9 am to late in the night.
With no stock of Covid vaccine, Tika Utsav was not conducted anywhere in the State on Monday. In Srikakulam, all the vaccine session centres wore a deserted look. Some people who visited the centres to get the second dose, returned home disappointed. The situation was same in Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam and other districts.
At New Government General Hospital in Vijayawada, 150 vaccine doses were administered to beneficiaries above 60 years of age in the morning. On the first day of Tika Utsav, all the available doses of vaccine, which were less than one lakh, were administered to beneficiaries. A total of 94,312 people were vaccinated on Sunday. They included 33,415 (first dose) and 5,034 (second dose) for above 60 years, 43,050 (first dose), 2,456 (second dose) between 45 and 59 years.