Hyderabad: The State government’s decision to adopt a unique two-pronged Covid vaccination strategy in Telangana has started to pay off with Health Department in collaboration with private hospitals managing to vaccinate over 20 lakh eligible individuals in the last five days.
The vaccine strategy in Telangana has also enabled to contain spread of Covid infection, eventually allowing authorities to unlock all lockdown restrictions at one go, hold festivals and reopen government schools, senior public health officials here said.
Unlike the vaccine administration drives in other States, which were mired in multiple interruptions due to shortage in vaccines, Telangana decided to roll-out vaccines in two phases.
While the first-phase was based on judicious use due to shortage of vaccines, the ongoing second phase is aimed at fully saturating the entire eligible population with Covid vaccines across all municipalities and villages of Telangana. As a result, authorities expect 100 per cent vaccination of eligible persons, which means at least one vaccine dose to eligible persons, in the coming weeks.
In the first phase, when the vaccines were in short supply, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao along with high-level team of health officials decided to opt for judicious and focused use of the available stock. This ensured that there was a steady supply of vaccines to the most deserved population. A majority of the beneficiaries in the first phase were in high-risk groups, and authorities also ensured cities like Hyderabad and smaller towns like Huzurabad achieved close to 100 per cent vaccination status.
The health wing also targeted high-risk groups and vaccinated nearly 35 lakh individuals who were from 23 different categories across Telangana. This targeted approach enabled to quickly ease lockdown restrictions, even as other States were struggling to contain new Covid-19 infections, officials said.
In the last few days during the second phase, the health wing went for vaccination in saturation mode. Vaccines are getting administered at all municipal and village levels through house-to-house surveys and special vaccination camps.
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