Out of the over 100 crore COVID vaccine doses administered in India, at least 2.9 crore were administered to people in Telangana till October 20. And of the 2.9 crore doses, nearly 40% were given in urban districts — Hyderabad, Rangareddy, and Medchal-Malkajgiri. The lowest coverage is in rural districts, including Vikarabad, Jogulamba Gadwal, Narayanpet, and Kumram Bheem Asifabad.
The number of doses administered in the State would soon cross the 3 crore mark.
Out of the total 2.77 crore people across the State eligible for vaccination, 82.93 lakh are from the three urban districts. This constitutes to 29.86% of the 2.77 crore eligible population, according to the Health department.
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The COVID-19 vaccination programme was launched on January 16, starting with Health Care Workers (HCW), and followed by Front Line Workers (FLW) from other government departments. After it was opened to the general public, the focus was on urban districts.
Director of Public Health Dr. G. Srinivasa Rao said that the initial focus was on urban districts as the concentration of population, cases and outbreaks were more in these localities.
“Now, the focus of first dose is in rural districts. Nodal officers are assigned to erstwhile districts to monitor the vaccination. In case of second dose, we are focusing on both rural and urban districts,” he said.
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From January 16 to October 19, a total of 2.9 crore doses were administered to people, including 2.08 crore first doses and 82.22 lakh second doses. Out of the 2.9 crore doses, 1.13 crore jabs were given in Hyderabad, Rangareddy, and Medchal-Malkajgiri districts, which is 39.1% of the total.
While the first dose coverage is more than 50% of the targeted population in all the districts, the second dose coverage has crossed 50% mark only in Hyderabad, Rangareddy, and Medchal.