HYDERABAD: Health Minister T Harish Rao on Tuesday requested the Centre to arrange 50 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine for the State “immediately”.A letter sent to Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya in this regard said that Telangana had only 2.7 lakh doses available which was not sufficient even for two days.In his letter, Harish Rao said that the State government had asked the Government of India from time to time to increase the supply of vaccines. However, the State is receiving vaccines in small quantities due to which it has been unable to ramp up vaccination from present levels.
“The State has the capacity to administer three lakh doses every day as per the demand, but due to shortage of vaccine, we are able to give only 1.5 lakh doses per day,” he wrote.The State has decided to take a massive drive for administration of precautionary doses. It needs the Centre to provide more doses as soon as possible, Harish Rao wrote.
Meanwhile, about 11 per cent of the eligible population in Telangana has been administered the third precautionary dose. However, the State has been able to administer only three per cent of doses since the beginning of this month and as of August 8, health workers have been able to cover eight per cent of the population. Only 7.25 per cent of people between 18 to 59 and 24 per cent of those above 60 have taken the precautionary dose. Incidentally, Telangana recorded 494 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday while 1,054 patients recovered from the virus.
11% beneficiaries received 3rd dose
About 11 per cent of the eligible population in Telangana has been administered the third precautionary dose. However, the State has been able to administer only three per cent of vaccination doses
since the beginning of this month