About 50 crore doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the country and the vaccination programme is going in the right direction, said Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
She was addressing the media after visiting a vaccination centre in Chinna Waltair area here on Sunday.
According to her, by July-end people have received about 50 crore doses, either the first or both doses, and now the focus is on getting the rest inoculated. “Initially, we focussed on frontline workers and people above 45 years of age with or without comorbid conditions. And now the focus is on 18-plus and women with small children,” she said.
Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman also said that the vaccination drive will go on till the entire population is vaccinated and efforts are on to increase the production of vaccines.
“We will shortly have two more vaccine brands and that should iron out the shortage, if any,” she said. She said that every State has been receiving the vaccines free of cost and the supply would continue.
Visits Alluri samadhi
She later left for KD Peta to visit the ‘samadhi’ of revolutionary leader Alluri Sitharama Raju, who led the Rampa rebellion of 1922. She also visited Thallapalem to review the distribution of rice through the Public Distribution System (PDS) under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana.
State Finance Minister Buggana Rajendrananth Reddy was present along with BJP State president Somu Veerraju, MLC P.V.N. Madhav and other BJP leaders.
District Collector A. Mallikarjuna explained how the vaccination process was going on.
He informed the Finance Minister about the number of centres, how many have been vaccinated and the facilities in the district.
Speaking to the media along with the Finance Minister, he said that in the State around 2.3 crore people have been vaccinated, out of which about 1.7 crore were administered the first dose and about 60 lakh the second. In Visakhapatnam close to 22 lakh have been inoculated – about 17 lakh the first dose and around 5 lakh the second.
