Hyderabad: Telangana Health Minister T Harish Rao on Friday urged the Union’s Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Mansukh Mandaviya to close the gap between the doses of Covishield vaccinations and stressed the need for reinforcement shots to be given to ‘risk groups’. front line and health care workers.
Harish Rao said in his letter to Mandviya that although the state is making efforts to vaccinate all qualifying people, it is essential that the gap between the doses is reduced.
The long waiting period between the two doses causes problems with the administration of the second dose to those who are eligible, especially migrant workers who tend to move out after the first dose. “Since the COWIN portal line list for the second dose is generated according to where the first dose was administered, it is difficult to locate people who are eligible for the second dose,” he said.
While saying that the period between the well is reduced to 4-6 weeks, as in the past, to improve the second dose of coverage, Rao said, “the waiting period also leads to people neglecting their second dose.”
In view of the new variant of the new Coronavirus (COVID-19), Omicron, Rao suggested that scrap shots be administered to risk groups, health care and frontline workers, as a period of eight to ten months has elapsed since the administration of their second dose.
Rao’s proposals are part of the state’s goal to complete 100 percent of the state’s vaccination by the end of this year.
Vaccination passports, one step closer to a fully vaccinated state
The Telangana Public Health Department on Thursday asked people to carry vaccine certificates when going to public places. G Srinivasa Rao, the director of public health, also said in a press conference that public health officials will randomly go to public places and ask for certificates from people.
“Not getting two doses of the vaccine is tantamount to suicide. We have about 80 lakh doses available for free in our state. People do not have to go to private hospitals and pay for it. “I appeal to people to come forward to take them,” he said.
The director said that 25 lakh people in Telangana did not receive the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) recorded a vaccination rate of 107 percent for the first dose and a meager 72 percent for the second dose, which is cause for concern.
Source: The Siasat Daily