COVID: Andhra Pradesh government to vaccinate people in 18-45 age group by first week of October 

VIJAYAWADA: The health department took up administration of Covid-19 vaccine to people in the age group of 18-45 at 911 village and ward secretariats in the State on Monday. It had come up with a special strategy to vaccinate all the people in the 18-45 age group by the first week of October depending on availability of vaccine. 

About 9 lakh doses of Covishield and Covaxin were kept ready before commencing vaccination for the 18-45 age group. A total of 2,10,218 people were vaccinated at 1,995 vaccination sites by 8 pm on Monday. 

“As per our vaccination strategy for the 18-45 age group, village/ward secretariat is being taken as a unit. Every habitation under the purview of 15,004 village/ward secretariats in the State are expected to be covered in the next two and a half months. If one village secretariat is covered today, the neighbouring one will be covered tomorrow,” explained a senior official. The two main objectives of the strategy is to bridge the gap between demand and supply of vaccine and effective crowd management at vaccination centres. 

According to health officials, a total of 1.93 crore people are in the age group of 18-45 years in the State. If the number of frontline workers, health staff, women with children aged below five years, pregnant woman, teachers and support staff, who are in the age group of 18-45, is deducted, there will be around 1.5 crore people to be vaccinated.

The State government which laid emphasis on completing vaccination of people above 45 years of age even when the Centre had announced administration of vaccine to the 18-45 age group, has nearly achieved its target as around 93 per cent of people in the 45+ age group have been vaccinated so far.

‘2 lakh pregnant women got vaccines’

About 37 lakh women with children aged below five years and 2 lakh pregnant women have also been vaccinated so far. “A majority of teachers in government schools have been vaccinated. Efforts are being taken to complete the vaccination of teachers and support staff in private schools at the earliest,” the official said. The State as on Monday has administered 2,66,05,812 doses.

1.5 crore need to be given jabs

A total of 1.93 crore people are in the age group of 18-45 in the State. If the number of frontline workers, health staff, women with children aged below five, pregnant woman, teachers and other staff who are in the age group, is deducted, there will be around 1.5 crore people to be vaccinated.