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Vaccination to resume after Telangana gets sufficient doses: Govt
Hyderabad The Telangana government announced on Tuesday that it would resume vaccination programme in the state only after acquiring sufficient stocks of vaccine from the producers as per the allocation made by the Centre
Hyderabad The Telangana government announced on Tuesday that it would resume vaccination programme in the state only after acquiring sufficient stocks of vaccine from the producers as per the allocation made by the Centre.
State director of medical and health G Srinivasa Rao told reporters that the vaccination programme had not been taking place for the last three days due to inadequate stock of Covaxin and non-receipt of fresh stocks from the Union ministry of health and family welfare.
He, however, refused to divulge the quantity of vaccine available with the state and when the vaccination programme would be resumed. “We do not want to take up vaccination with the limited stocks and stop the programme abruptly due to lack of arrival of fresh stocks. This will lead to periodical interruptions in the vaccination programme and create confusion among the people due to uncertainty in the vaccine availability,” Rao said.
He said chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had given clear instructions that vaccination programme could be stopped for a few days and resumed only after sufficient stocks were available. “We are also floating global tenders this evening to mobilise sufficient quantity of vaccine at the earliest,” the health director said.
On Tuesday, Telangana reported 3,982 Covid-19 positive cases and 27 deaths. “The recovery rate in the state is 90.47 per cent, as against the national average of 85.6 per cent,” Rao said.
Director of medical education Dr Ramesh Reddy said the state government had decided to step up the medical infrastructure in the state to face any pandemic in the coming years. “The chief minister has approved setting up of six new medical colleges in the state at Sangareddy, Jagtial, Kothagudem, Wanaparthy, Mancherial, and Mahabubabad, besides six nursing colleges, from the coming academic year,” he said.
At a review meeting on Monday night, the chief minister also announced setting up of 12 regional sub-centres at Siddipet, Wanaparthy, Mahboobabad, Kothagudem, Nagarkurnool, Suryapet, Bhongir, Jagtial, Mancherial, Bhoopalpally, Vikarabad, and Gadwal, where additional facilities would be created for treating Covid-19 patients in the existing government hospitals in these areas.
He said these centres would ensure supply of medicines, oxygen and other requirements to the government hospitals. He asked the medical and health department to set up 48 oxygen-generation plants in the government hospitals to produce 324 metric tonnes of oxygen required for the Covid-19 patients in the state and also to ensure that there would not be any shortage of oxygen in future.
He also instructed the officials to set up an additional plant to produce 100 metric tonnes of liquid oxygen in Hyderabad. “In the coming days Telangana should not depend on other states for the supply of oxygen,” he said.
The chief minister called upon the people not to rush to private hospitals for treatment and pay exorbitant fees, as there were sufficient number of beds available in the government hospitals. There are 6926 beds vacant in the government hospitals, which include 2253 oxygen beds, 533 ICU beds and 4,140 general beds.
With regard to black fungus cases, the director of medical education said there was no need to get panicky as it was not contagious. “At present, there are around 50 cases in the government hospitals, besides another 30-40 in private hospitals. We have appointed a committee of experts to prepare standard treatment protocol,” Reddy said.
