Hyderabad: The state government has halted Covid-19 vaccinations all 1,077 state-run centres for a day on Sunday due a shortage. Director of Health Services Dr G. Srinivasa Rao announced late on Saturday evening that “There will not be any vaccination at government Covid vaccination centres on April 18. Vaccination will resume on April 19.”
Earlier in the day, addressing a press conference, Dr Rao had said that Telangana state was running short of vaccines and was hoping that a promised delivery of 2.7 lakh doses by the Centre would materialise late on Saturday or on Sunday morning.
He had said that there were just enough doses for one day. “If the supplies do not come, then we will have just around 2 lakh doses left with us that might last us for Sunday or just spill over a bit for Monday,” he had said earlier in the day.
On Friday, 1,75,239 first and second doses of the vaccine were administered in the state. A record 1,51,999 people got their first shots during the day. So far, a total of 3,49,842 people have completed their two-dose vaccination cycle while 24,51,968 people got their first dose.
Dr Rao said the nearly 25 lakh first doses represent more than a quarter of the nearly 80 lakh persons aged 45 and above who are eligible to get vaccinated. “If we continue at the current pace, we should be able to vaccinate everyone eligible in the state by the end of June,” he said.
There were some disruptions because of shortages over the past couple of days in some of the 1,334 vaccination centres including some private ones.
"If a person is unable to get vaccinated on a particular day, please go again, the vaccine supply position will improve," he said.
