Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has announced that the State government is ready to administer scientifically-approved COVID-19 vaccine to its people.
Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao expressed the State government’s willingness to give the vaccine to its people after any such vaccine is verified for any side effects. He stated this during a video conference held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday with all Chief Ministers and Lieutenant Governors to discuss about distribution and administering of the vaccine to people.
Stating that people were eagerly waiting for a COVID vaccine, Mr. Rao felt that a proven vaccine was the need of the hour. “The Telangana government is ready to distribute and administer the vaccine to its people on a priority basis,” he noted.
He explained that the government would prepare an action plan to administer the vaccine, but it would take into consideration whether the vaccine would have any side effects. “Since there are different weather and climatic conditions in the country, the impact of COVID too has not been in a uniform manner and there is a possibility of side effects based on the local conditions,” the Chief Minister said.
Accordingly, he suggested the Centre to send a batch of vaccine doses to States for administering them to people to study whether there were any side effects. “We can administer the vaccines to the masses assessing the situation after administering it to some willing to take it first,” the Chief Minister felt.
Chief Secretary Sri Somesh Kumar, Principal Secretary in CMO S. Narsing Rao, Principal Secretary (Medical & Health) Syed Ali Murtuza Rizvi, Medical & Health Director Srinivas Rao, Medical Education Director Ramesh Reddy, Health University Vice-Chancellor Karunakar Reddy, Experts Committee member Gangadhar and others also attended the video conference.
Action plan
In a meeting held with the officials who attended the video conference, the Chief Minister instructed them to prepare an action plan to administer the vaccine by creating the necessary infrastructure including cold chain for storage of the vaccine. He wanted the officials to form committees at State, District and Mandal level for taking up the vaccination programme.
The vaccine would be given to COVID warriors and other frontline workers such as police and sanitation departments, persons aged above 60 years, people suffering from acute diseases and other needy sections who would require vaccination on priority basis.