Health Ministry must allow booster doses for eligible at all Govt Hospitals: Telangana
Hyderabad: In the wake of a surge in Covid infections driven by BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron variants, the Telangana government on Monday urged union Health Minister, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya to allow administration of booster or precautionary doses to all eligible individuals above 18 years at government hospitals.
At present, Telangana has a stock of nearly 32 lakh Covid vaccines, which will eventually expire in the coming months if they are not administered to eligible individuals at the earliest.
The Health Ministry has only allowed private hospitals to administer booster shots to individuals between 18 years and 59 years. However, given the surge of Covid infections and the huge built-up stock of vaccines, the Ministry must allow government hospitals to start administering precautionary doses, Telangana Health Minister, T Harish Rao in a video conference with Dr Mandaviya, on Monday said.
During the video conference held for all States and union Territories, Harish Rao said the new Omicron variants are driving the present surge of infections and allowing government hospitals to administer precautionary doses is important.
“Government hospitals are already administering booster doses for eligible individuals who are above 60 years. This is the right time to broaden the initiative. We have already written to you twice regarding this issue. In the coming days, to identify more Covid infections and isolate them at the earliest, we will also increase the number of Covid rapid tests and RT-PCR tests in all government hospitals across Telangana,” Harish Rao said.
He also briefed Dr Mandaviya about the door-to-door Covid vaccine administration drive and added, “since June 3, we have already administered Covid vaccines to 1.3 lakh individuals as part of the drive.”
In the 12 to 18 years category, the first dose coverage of Covid vaccine in Telangana is 104.78 per cent while the coverage of second dose is 99.72 per cent, said Harish Rao.s
