Telangana seeks booster shot for 9.8L eligible aged 15-59

Hyderabad: Urging the Centre to allow the State to administer precautionary doses to citizens, the Telangana government on Wednesday sought vaccine for 9.8 lakh eligible persons in the 18-59 age group in the wake of new variants coming up.

Health Minister T Harish Rao urged the Centre to permit the State to administer vaccine to all eligible beneficiaries of 18-59 years at the government Covid centres, as was being done for FLW, HCW and over 60 age groups. He wanted necessary instructions to be issued to the concerned authorities to provide the required vaccine so as to ensure seamless and uninterrupted administration of the precautionary doses to all those eligible in the State.

Rao said Telangana achieved 106 per cent coverage for first dose and 100 per cent for second dose for 18 and above age group. For the 15-17 year-old, the first dose coverage was 90 per cent and the second dose 73 per cent. For the 12-14 age group the first dose coverage was 78 per cent.

He said the massive vaccination programme enabled the government to contain Covid and restrict severity and new infections to a large extent. "There is a constant threat of new variants coming up. There are over 9.84 lakh beneficiaries eligible for the precautionary doses in the State. In view of the expected Covid variants and to contain any surge of Covid cases, the government proposed to administer precautionary doses for eligible beneficiaries in the 18-59 age group.

The Centre has informed the State governments that the precautionary dose of Covid vaccine would be available to those above 18 years at the Private Covid Vaccination Centres (PCVCs) from April 10 on completion of nine months, which is 39 weeks (273 days) after the second dose.