Left with vaccine to last only 3 days, TS asks Centre for more
By Newsmeter Network Published on 11 April 2021 6:45 AM GMT
Hyderabad: Foreseeing a shortage of COVID-19 vaccine in Telangana in view of the state's plans to ramp up vaccination, the state chief secretary, Somesh Kumar, on 10 April wrote to the Centre requesting for more vaccine.
The state informed the Centre that COVID-19 vaccination has been ramped up in the state and the number of vaccinations on 9 April had crossed 1.15 lakh. In the letter, Mr. Kumar said, "In the coming days this will be enhanced to over two lakh per day. As you (Centre) are aware that Telangana is left with only 5.66 lakh doses of vaccine which would last for three more days maximum. Therefore, the state requests you to urgently provide at least 30 lakh doses of vaccine to Telangana for the next 15 days."
Since last week, the state has ramped up its vaccination drive, administering 1.02 lakh jabs on 8 April, 1.15 lakh on 9 April, and 1.62 lakh jabs on 10 April.
Meanwhile, a four-day long Tika Utsav (vaccine festival) will start from 11 to 14 April following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with Chief Ministers to help people eligible for vaccination get immunized during the period.
Telangana is the ninth state to report a shortage of vaccines. The Centre had earlier reiterated that states have enough vaccine doses.
The state has so far administered 20,61,395 doses to health care workers (4,02,766), frontline workers (2,12,526), and people who are 45 years and above (14,46,103).
On Saturday Telangana saw the highest one-day spike of COVID-19 cases since the pandemic broke out and reported 3,187 cases taking the state's tally to 3.27.278. The last time Telangana reported more than 3,000 cases in a day was on 24 August 2020 when it saw 3,018 cases.
The state reported seven new deaths on Saturday taking the total death toll to 1,752. The fatality rate in the state is 0.54 per cent which is less than the national average of 1.3 per cent.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) area reported 551 new cases. The neighbouring Rangareddy district reported 271, Medchal Malkajgiri 333, and Sangareddy 104 new cases. Other districts of Telangana are also seeing a surge in cases. Nizamabad reported 251 new cases on Saturday while Nirmal reported 154 and Jagtial 134 new cases.
