As Covid-19 cases shoot up again, Andhra Pradesh targets one crore vaccinations by April end

As the daily new Covid-19 cases breached the 500 mark for the first time this year, the Jaganmohan Reddy government has set a target of vaccinating one crore population by April end, covering 25 lakh people each week.

About four lakh health and frontline workers, and 59.08 lakh citizens who are either over 60 years age or 45 years and above with co-morbidities are yet to be vaccinated in Andhra Pradesh.

The Central government has decided to provide the Covid-19 vaccine to all those above 45 years age from 1 April.

AP health officials said that 585 new positive cases were recorded from the 35,066 samples tested between Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.

The state has 2946 active cases at present and a total of 8,95,121 Covid-19 cases registered till Wednesday.

Reviewing the pace of the vaccination programme on Wednesday, Reddy directed the officials to initiate the immunization in all the urban areas from Monday, “as the civic polls are completed.”

Reddy remarked that the uncertainty over the MPTC and ZPTC polls has become an impediment in the vaccination programme as human resources have to be allocated for the conduct of the local body polls.

To expedite the immunization, the CM proposed a pilot project under which eight villages are covered in every mandal every week, by allocating the healthcare personnel four days a week in the rural areas.

“Involve village, ward secretariats, volunteers, Asha workers. Initiate awareness campaigns so that everyone gets vaccinated without any fear,” Reddy said.

The Chief Minister also emphasized on the “village doctor concept”, directing authorities to make sure “that each mandal has two PHCs, and each PHC two physicians.”

Covid-19 tests should be conducted in the RT-PCR method and all existing facilities to treat Covid-19 patients should be continued, the CM instructed. Officials said that 5,000 beds are presently available for Covid-19 patients.