Jagan says those above 18 can be vaccinated from September

During a review meeting to discuss COVID-19 vaccination in the state held at the camp office here, Jagan said it will take four months to vaccinate people in the age group of 18-45 years, which means they will be vaccinated by end of January.

Stating that the only solution to COVID-19 is vaccination, Jagan said the country is producing seven crore vaccines per month of which one crore is Covaxin and the rest is Covishield‌. There are 26 crore people above 45 years of age in the country who will receive two doses of vaccine over a period of four weeks which would require 52 crore vaccines.

Jagan said the first dose has been administered to 12 crore people while only 2.60 crore have received the second dose which means 15 crore doses have been given so far. He added that 39 crore vaccine doses are required. He said Barath Biotech has been manufacturing one crore vaccines per month, the Serum Institute is preparing six crore vaccines per month, and it will take a few months for Dr. Reddy Labs and other companies to make their vaccine available. He said 20 crore vaccines can be ready by August and add to that seven crore vaccines, the demand for 39 crore vaccines could be met by August or September.

He said there are 60 crore people in the country between the ages of 18-45 and120 crore vaccine doses are required for them. Adding the present situation will continue till February, he warned everyone to be cautious and added that sanitation is important to curb the spread of the virus.