Telangana to receive 3.6 lakh doses of COVID vaccine: State Health Director

Hyderabad: Telangana's Director of Public Health on Monday said that the state will receive about 3.6 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccine today and along with the already existing 4.64 lakh doses, it would have around seven to eight lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccines, which would be sufficient for the next four to five days.

Dr G Srinivasa Rao, the Director of Public Health, Telangana, told ANI that there has been no shortage of COVID-19 vaccines in the state. "The state till date has received around 26.78 lakhs of vaccine doses from the government of India and till now, the state has been able to distribute around 22.14 lakh doses of vaccine and are currently left with 4.64 lakh doses. Further, the Telangana state will be receiving around 3.6 lakh doses today," he said.

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"The state will have around seven to eight lakh doses that are sufficient for the next four to five days. Further, we have also received an assurance from the government of India that more vaccine doses will be sent in a couple of days," he further said.

He mentioned that more than 1,300 centres are currently working as vaccination centres distributing vaccine to the eligible people and are able to inoculate nearly about 1.5 lakh people on daily basis in the state.

Speaking about the response from the central government to the letter written by Telangana state Chief Secretary to the Union Health Secretary, Dr Srinivasa said that the response from the centre has been very proactive. "As a part of the ongoing 'Tika Utsav', Telangana state CS has requested for 30 lakh doses from the centre for ramping up the vaccination drive. And the centre has responded to the letter in a very pro-active manner and we will be receiving more doses in the near future," he said.

Further speaking, the Health Director said that a robust supervision mechanism has been set up in the state to handle any sort of shortage of COVID-19 vaccine in any centre. "Each cold chain point is being very closely monitored by various teams at both district levels as well as at the state level, keeping the record of the number of doses available and the requirement. If at all any of the vaccination centres across the state face any shortage of vaccine, then they are immediately being readjusted among the cold chain points and other vaccine centres," he said.

About the increasing number of cases across the country and Telangana, Srinivasa said, "As Telangana shares its borders with states like Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka where the number of COVID-19 cases is increasing, the state has responded very quickly and have initiated border surveillance as a part of the containment measures."

The state health director said that the state has also intensified the testing. "Earlier the state used to conduct 20,000 to 30,000 testings and currently, we are able to reach more than a lakh testing across the state on daily basis. Currently, we are recording over 2,500 to 3,000 COVID-19 positive cases across the state for the last few days."

In order to handle the increasing COVID-19 cases, he said that the situation in the state is being closely monitored and rapid response teams have already been deployed across the state. "Testing and tracing are in full swing, micro containment zones are also being set up to contain the spread of the virus. Both the government and private hospitals are fully equipped to handle any sort of situation," he said. He further mentioned that more beds are being mobilised into hospitals in view of the increasing number of cases.

He said that awareness is being created amongst the public and law enforcement is taking strict action against the violators of COVID-19 norms by imposing on them a fine of around Rs 1,000.

Dr Srinivasa opined that the Indian government's move to give a green signal to the Russian vaccine 'Sputnik V' is a very welcoming move. "It is a very welcoming move that the Central government has given a green signal to the distribution of the Russian vaccine, Sputnik V. By this move, India will be able to receive even more vaccine doses."

He mentioned, "Both the vaccine producing companies in India, Bharat Biotech of Hyderabad and Serum Institute of India (SII) in Pune have a capacity to produce 7 crore doses per month and yet the demand for doses are being unable to be met. In order to reach the demands, the Centre is making sure the production capacity of Indian companies are increased and also allowing the distribution of the Russian vaccine."

"Hyderabad has now become a hub for the preparation of vaccine as Covaxin is manufactured by Bharat Biotech, Dr Reddy's labs is manufacturing Sputnik V here in Hyderabad. He further said that in near future, Johnson and Johnson (J&J) is also coming up with a vaccine and Bharat Biotech is all set to introduce its nasal vaccine," he further said.

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