Telangana warriors take shots with cheer

Hyderabad: Amid cheers, the war against Covid-19 has finally begun as a woman sanitation worker S Krishnamma received the first dose of vaccine against the novel coronavirus at a state-run hospital as the exercise was launched in Telangana on Saturday.

Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy and Telangana Health Minister Eatala Rajender formally launched the vaccination programme at the Gandhi Hospital soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the nation on the vaccine rollout concluded.

The vaccination campaign also began simultaneously at various other locations in the State where State Ministers and other public representatives were present.

Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, a medical doctor, visited the state-run Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) in the city to "greet the Recipients of vaccines on the Historic vaccine launch today. It is a THANKS giving day to all Drs nurses para medics & sanitary workers who served covid patients," she tweeted.

The healthcare workers and others, who received the vaccine at different places in the state, told reporters that they did not experience any health issues. K Jayamma (42), a health worker, received the first vaccine shot at the Rural Health Centre at Narsingi on the city outskirts. "We the health workers have been serving the Covid-19 patients for the past nine months and were awaiting the vaccine," Jayamma, an Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) at the Narsingi Rural Health Centre said.

Bharat Biotech, which has received government purchase order for supply of 55 lakh doses of Covaxin, a Covid-19 vaccine, says it will pay compensation to recipients in case of any serious adverse effects experienced after receiving the antidote.