Telangana requests Centre for booster shots

Hyderabad: Health Minister T Harish Rao has urged the Union Health Minister to reduce the time interval between two doses of the Covid vaccine and also provide a booster dose for frontline and healthcare workers as it has been over 10 months since they were fully-vaccinated. In his letter to Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, Harish informed that the target population for Covid vaccination in the State was about 2.77 crore. As on date, 3.77 crore doses of vaccine have been administered, of which 2.49 crore doses were given as first dose and the remaining 1.28 crore as second dose. "The State is making all efforts to fully vaccinate all eligible persons," he noted.

Mentioning that the gap between the two doses was quite long and it often causes difficulty in covering people with second dose, especially inter-state and intra-state migrant workers and persons from high-risk groups, he requested the Minister to reduce the time interval between the two doses from 12 weeks to 4-6 weeks as in the past.

Now with the scare of new variant, Harish requested the Centre to provide booster dose for healthcare and frontline workers as they have taken both doses 10 months ago.