The request to administer COVID-19 precautionary dose free of cost by government to all eligible adults (above 18 years) was placed again by Telangana Health Minister T Harish Rao. He said that the State has 32 lakh doses of the vaccine which could cross expiry date. The Health Minister wrote with the same request to the Union Health Minister in April of this year.
At a review meeting through video conference held by Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya on Monday, Mr Harish Rao placed some requests and suggestions. The meeting was held with Health Ministers and senior officials of States and Union Territories (UTs) to review the progress of vaccination exercise Har Ghar Dastak 2.0 campaign.
Citing new variants of the Coronavirus driving surge in the cases in some States, Mr Harish Rao reasoned that precautionary doses could help in containing spread of the virus.
Currently, only people above 60 years are eligible for free precautionary dose from government. In case of others above 18 years, only private hospitals are allowed to give precautionary dose from April 10.
The other topics which were presented by the State Health Minister includes elimination of Tuberculosis, eye tests, number of people in various age groups who were administered the vaccine.
As part of the door-to-door vaccination initiated from June 3, around 1.30 lakh people were vaccinated in the ten days. Since the cases are surging, RT-PCR tests in the State might increase.
