Telangana State readies jabs for 22 Lakh teenagers from Jan 3

Hyderabad: Following the Union Health Ministry's guidelines, the State government is bracing itself for inoculating over 22.78 lakh teenagers, in the age group of 15 and 18, with Covid vaccine from January 3.

Most of the teenagers to get vaccinated will be the students of 10th standard, intermediate first and second years, and degree first-year students. Further, youngsters working various fields like construction, agriculture etc would be also covered under the drive.

According to the State Health department, the preparations are also on to provide booster dose to frontline workers including medical, paramedical staff, police officers, healthcare workers and those above 60 years of age with comorbidities.

The officials in the Health department stated that they had started providing training for health teams, Asha workers and other medical staff on how to vaccinate children. Many special vaccination centres would also be set up in government schools, private schools, junior and degree colleges to vaccinate the young population, they said. Meanwhile with regard to vaccination in adults, the State had already completed the first dose of immunisation to more than 99 per cent, while 64 per cent are fully-vaccinated with the completion of two doses.

Director of Public Health Dr G Srinivasa Rao said that cases were expected to increase significantly in the next two months and all eligible people must come forward to get fully-vaccinated by taking two doses.

The officials are hoping that the vaccination drive for youngsters could be completed quickly if the State gets an uninterrupted supply of vaccine doses. So far, the State had administered more than 4 crore doses.