TS govt achieves a milestone: All eligible above 18 covered under Covid vaccination drive

Hyderabad: The Telangana government has achieved a milestone in Covid vaccination programme. It completed administering vaccines to 100 per cent eligible beneficiaries who are above 18 years on Thursday.

The vaccination was launched on January 16, 2021 initially for the healthcare workers and later expanded to other vulnerable groups before making vaccines available to all. The vaccination drive for individuals above 18 years was completed in 14 months, Director of Public Health (DPH), Dr G Srinivasa Rao, said.

He said the government completed administering Covid vaccines to all eligible individuals above 18 years, which means the beneficiaries have received both doses," he said.

Despite the recent rise of the BA.2 variant of Omicron and its spread in China and other South East Asian countries, he said the higher percentage of Covid vaccination and natural immunity among people is enough to check the spread of infections in case another wave of Covid spreads in future.

"During the third wave in Telangana, 70 per cent of cases were of the BA2 variant, while 30 per cent were caused by BA1 variant, which helped people gain natural immunity. The third wave was quickly contained due to vaccination," Dr Rao said. Covid will become localised or endemic in nature by this year-end.

He urged parents of children aged 12-14 years to get them vaccinated. The worrying factor is the vaccination percentage in this age group is less in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts. The health teams were not getting permission to administer Covid vaccines in private schools in the two districts. Only 64 per cent of 11 lakh eligible children received the first dose of vaccine so far, he added.