Chief Minister Y.S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday launched the phase-3 vaccination for all those between 45 and 60 years at a ward secretariat in Guntur and said the State government was determined to vaccinate one crore people by the end of April.
“Vaccination at village/ward secretariats should be taken up with a missionary zeal and we are launching the programme at secretariats. Our volunteers or ASHA workers will collect the details of all those above 45 years, including their health condition and enrol their names. They will inform the date and place of vaccination. A team of two doctors, 104 emergency doctor, nurses will monitor vaccination and I want everyone to get vaccinated and make our State a COVID-free State,” Mr. Jagan said.
Earlier, Mr. Jagan along with his wife, Bharathi Reddy, got vaccinated at the ward secretariat (no 140) at Bharathpet in Guntur on Thursday. The Chief Minister, who reached the ward secretariat at 11 a.m., was given the jab. He spent 30 minutes after vaccination in the hall, and interacted with the staff of the medical and health department.
Addressing a meeting, the Chief Minister said that following the directions of the Union government, every one above 45 years should get vaccinated and in case, the Centre gave revised guidelines for people below 45 years, the State government would also vaccinate them.
“I expect that the entire process of vaccination would be completed within 90 days and I am sure we will cover the entire State,” Mr. Jagan said.
The Chief Minister also said that in case, election notification is given for holding MPTC/ZPTC elections, the process would be completed within six days and after the elections, there would not be any hindrance to vaccination. He said that he wanted the Health Secretary and other officials to explain and convince the State Election Commissioner of the need to hold elections immediately.
“Vaccination is the only solution to combat the virus and by the grace of God, we were able to vaccinate ourselves. COVID is here to stay and we should learn to live with it. I am proud that nowhere else, such an initiative has been taken at ward and village secretariat level and we will be a role model in the country by vaccinating maximum number of people,” Mr. Jagan said.
Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Health, Alla Kalikrishna Srinivas; Home Minister M. Sucharita;, Housing Minister Ch. Ranganatha Raju; Special Chief Secretary, Ward and Village Secretariat, Ajay Jain; Commissioner, Health and Family Planning Katamaneni Bhaskar; MPs Lavu Srikrishnadevarayulu, Nandigam Sureshm Collector Vivek Yadav and MLAs were present.
