Telangana govt urges Centre to sanction 50 lakh doses of Covishield

Hyderabad: The Telangana government on Tuesday urged Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), Dr Mansukh Mandaviya to immediately release 50 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine to the State, which will help to ramp up the pace of the ongoing drive to administer precautionary/ booster doses.

In a letter to Dr Mandaviya, the State Health Minister T Harish Rao informed that at present Telangana has less than 2.7 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine, which will not be sufficient to administer even for two-days.

"Telangana has taken-up a massive drive to administer precautionary doses to all eligible people. Presently, Telangana is administering about 1.5 lakh doses of Covid vaccine per day. However, based on the demand, there is a potential to administer over 3 lakh precautionary/booster doses per day which the State is not able to meet as there is shortage of vaccine supplies, particularly for Covishield," Harish Rao in the letter said.

The Telangana government has been requesting the Central government to increase the supply of vaccines but is receiving vaccines in small quantities only, due to which there has been inability to ramp up vaccination from present levels, Harish Rao pointed out.

Harish Rao also highlighted the fact that Telangana has already achieved 100 per cent coverage of Covid vaccination. "Telangana State has achieved 106 per cent coverage of first dose of Covid vaccination and 104 per cent for the second dose for 18 years plus population, which is one of the highest in the country," Harish Rao said.

At present, based on the regulatory recommendations, the same Covid-19 vaccine that was used for administration of first and second doses has to be administered as a precaution/ booster dose to persons above 18 years of age. The majority of first and second Covid vaccine doses that were administered in Telangana consisted of Covishield. As a result, the demand for Covishield during the ongoing administration of booster doses is high in Telangana.