Around two crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Telangana since the immunisation programme was launched in the State in mid-January. The first one crore jabs were given in 161 days (January 16 to June 25), and the next set of one crore doses were given in almost half the time — 82 days (June 26 to September 15).
Health department staff were aggressively involved in providing vaccines at government health facilities. Besides the government sector, the jabs were given at private healthcare facilities too. Of the two crore doses, 1.44 crore were first jabs.
Around 2.8 crore people in the State who are above the age of 18 years are eligible for vaccination. To this day, 48% of the 2.8 crore targeted beneficiaries are yet to receive even the first dose of vaccine.
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The State government is set to launch a special drive in rural localities and towns of the State from Thursday. It has set a target of vaccinating another one crore people against COVID-19 by the end of this month, taking the total vaccine coverage to three crore.
Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar commended the Health department, district officials and the GHMC for successfully completing vaccination of two crore people so far. He cut a cake in the presence of senior health officials on Wednesday to mark the occasion, and said the government was working relentlessly to ensure vaccination of all the entire population, setting time lines.