HYDERABAD: The Telangana government may consider introducing a rule that those who haven’t received a dose of any Covid vaccine will be banned from entering public places. The said announcement was made by Director of Public Health Dr G Srinivasa Rao at a press conference, wherein he stated that this ban may encompass parks, clubs, pubs, hotels, eateries, schools and colleges.
“This is a good time to reopen institutions like schools and colleges as Covid-19 cases are under control and we have vaccinated several groups, including teachers and support staff. If anyone is left behind, we urge the administration to either get it done or to approach us. We are considering introducing a rule to allow only vaccinated teachers and staff in schools,” Dr Rao said. He stressed that the State’s R-value (a measure of rate of spread of infection) was 0.7 per cent, the Test Positivity Rate was 0.5 per cent and hospitalisation was less than 6 per cent, implying that the second wave was under control.
He urged the citizens of Telangana, to get vaccinated at the earliest, saying nearly 56 per cent of the eligible population in the State had already been vaccinated, with 1.23 crore citizens having received at least one dose of the vaccine, out of the eligible population of 2.2 crore.
“In Hyderabad, we have vaccinated more people than the estimated population of Hyderabad as per the Centre. Effectively, in Hyderabad, nearly 117 per cent people (100% accounting for the Centre’s estimate of the population) have taken at least one dose of the vaccine, showing encouraging signs of herd immunity.
In Medchal, 70 per cent of the people have been vaccinated while it is 88 per cent in Rangareddy,” he added. He further said that to speed up the vaccination drive, 80 more mobile vaccination vans would be added across the State to the existing fleet of 80 vans, which were added last week in the GHMC region. These vans, in a span of seven days, vaccinated 1.21 lakh individuals. “We have a lot of doses and there is no shortage. In fact, 90 per cent of the vaccinations are happening via government centres,” he added.