Andhra govt for reducing Covid vax booster dose gap by 3 months

Amaravati, Jan 17 (IANS) The Andhra Pradesh government has decided to urge the Central government to reduce by three months, the gap for administering precautionary dose of Covid vaccine.

At the Covid review meeting on Monday, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy decided to write a letter to the Central government seeking to reduce the gap from the existing nine months to six months.

The chief minister opined that reducing the gap for precautionary or booster dose by three – four months, would benefit frontline workers and those who provide emergency services and also prevent many people from being hospitalised, state government officials said.

After studying the prevailing Covid situation in the state, the chief minister directed the officials to focus on scaling up vaccination in five districts of East Godavari, Guntur, YSR Kadapa, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam, which have the lowest rate of second dose vaccination. He said vaccination to the age group of 15-18 years has been completed 100 percent in Nellore and West Godavari, and it was 90 percent in other five districts and 80 percent in other four districts and directed the officials to expedite the vaccination process in Vizianagaram and Vishakapatnam districts. He also reviewed on progress of construction works of new medical colleges.

Briefing the chief minister on the state of preparedness, the state health department officials informed the chief minister that they have arranged for 53,184 hospital beds for treating Covid patients. They said only 1,100 people were hospitalised out of 27,000 active cases and only 600 of them needed oxygen support. The Chief Minister instructed the officials to make arrangements for availability of oxygen and medicines.

Deputy Chief Minister (Health) Alla Krishna Srinivas, chief secretary Sameer Sharma, principal health secretary Anil Kumar Singhal, principal health secretary — Covid management and vaccination Muddada Ravi Chandra, Finance Secretary N. Gulzar, and other officials were present in the review meeting.

–IANS

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