Telangana health department has announced 100 per cent coverage of the target population in the state with the first dose of Covid-19 vaccination.
State health minister Harish Rao claimed that Telangana is the first big state in the country to have achieved the feat.
Over 2.77 crore people have been administered the first dose, while the second dose coverage is at 66 per cent. The national average of second dose coverage is 63 per cent only, Rao said.
“Our government has laid a special focus on vaccination, in order to control Covid-19. We would conduct a special drive covering every house in January third week to ensure 100 per cent coverage of the eligible population with the second dose too,” the minister said.
Hyderabad and adjacent Ranga-Reddy districts are ahead in vaccine coverage. Rao said that they are making arrangements to begin vaccination of the 15 to 18 years age group from January 3 and the booster dose coverage of frontline workers and senior citizens from January 10.
The state has a stock of 10,99,620 doses of Covishield and 14,24,220 doses of Covaxin. Meanwhile, the new daily Covid-19 cases, which remained below the 200-mark for several weeks, shot up to 228 on Tuesday. 110 of these cases were added in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation area, where the figure has stayed below 100 for a long time.
Ascending Omicron cases have also become a concern for health officials, ahead of new year celebrations and other festivities ahead. While most of the 62 cases detected till now are of people who came from foreign countries, four are that of their contacts.
Public health director Dr Srinivasa Rao said that they are adequately equipped, medical infrastructure wise, to deal with any surge in cases. Out of 55,442 hospital beds in the public and private sector, only 1,213 are occupied.
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