Vaccine shots proving beneficial: Health experts

The reason for the lack of severity is due to higher penetration of Covid vaccines, including the booster shots and immunity gained by previous natural infections, they point out.

Hyderabad: The general public in Telangana continues to reap the benefits of higher levels of penetration of Covid vaccines, booster shots, and immunity gained from natural Covid infection, which appears to have provided a healthy population-level immunity from severe infections due to JN.1, the new variant of SARS-CoV-2.

Public health officials and doctors tracking the nature of recent Covid infections in Hyderabad have said that more than 90 per cent of the positive cases are only upper respiratory tract infections and there are not many instances of patients with complex pneumonia like symptoms.

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The reason for the lack of severity is due to higher penetration of Covid vaccines, including the booster shots and immunity gained by previous natural infections, they point out.

More than 90 per cent of people in Telangana have received their first and second Covid vaccine shots. Last year, nearly 1 crore individuals received booster shots. Perhaps that is the reason why, JN.1, the new Covid variant is not getting a foothold in the community.

Almost all the Covid positive infections are recovering, senior doctors from Gandhi and Osmania General Hospital, observed. At present, among southern States, Telangana along with Andhra Pradesh is on the top, when it comes Covid booster shots.

Till this January, a total of 1.08 crore individuals (between 18 years and 59 years) from Telangana received Covid vaccine booster shots. Even the penetration of first and second doses of Covid vaccines is very high with nearly 5.9 crore vaccines shots (including first and second) getting administered to eligible individuals.

Since the day of the launch of the Covid vaccine on Sankranti festival i.e. January 16, 2021, in Telangana, the then BRS government had administered over 7.76 crore doses of Covid vaccine shots (two regular doses, one booster) for all eligible age groups.