Visakhapatnam: Centre crossed its target as 50 crore people got inoculated

Visakhapatnam: About 50 crore people across the country got vaccinated free of cost till now. Going forward, more people will be inoculated in a phased manner, said Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Paying a visit to the urban health centre at China Waltair here on Sunday, the Finance Minister said the Centre has actually crossed the target set till July end. "Every group is considered in a scientific manner and the Centre is bearing the expenses of providing vaccination to all the states without any supply interruption. Also, efforts are made to increase the supply and ensure the beneficiaries receive free vaccination," she stated.

Apart from the vaccine supply, care is also taken to provide infrastructure and logistics support to the states, the Finance Minister emphasised.

About the 18-plus category, the Finance Minister said, "Priority is set even for this group. Pregnant women who are above 18 years of age are given vaccination. Similarly, students who want to go abroad for further education and are above 18 years will be accorded priority. Likewise, teachers are being vaccinated. With the supply of doses increasing from August and approval is given to two more pharmaceutical companies, the Centre aims at increasing the supply further so that more people can get vaccinated."

Sharing information of the state and district statistics, District Collector A Mallikarjuna said 2.36 crore persons have been vaccinated across Andhra Pradesh, "In Visakhapatnam, 22 lakh got inoculated and the supply is arriving in an uninterrupted manner," the Collector said.

Later, the Finance Minister interacted with the doctors and the staff at the session site.