AP records 76% in giving first dose of Covid jab by surpassing national avg. of 74%

Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh government has administered at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine to 76 per cent of the eligible population, against the national average coverage of 74 per cent.

The state government has identified 3.69 crore people aged above 18 years for the vaccine. Of them, the first dose has been administered to nearly 3.13 crore people, and the second dose to 1.79 crore people taking the total number of people who received the jab to 4.93 crore so far.

Telangana has registered 74 per cent coverage with the first dose, Tamil Nadu 67, Karnataka 83 and Kerala registered 94 per cent, sources said.

With regard to the second dose, AP has registered 42 per cent against the national average of only 30 per cent, indicating that the AP government is far ahead in the race to cover all eligible people. Telangana has achieved 29 per cent, Tamil Nadu 24, Karnataka 41 and Kerala registered 46.

The state health authorities maintain that the targeted population varies for varied reasons as some people may move to other places without taking the jab while some may die while others defer vaccination.

Sources said over five crore doses of vaccine have been distributed to the districts with minimum wastage of the vaccine despite exemption given for 10 per cent while handling it.

A senior health official said, “As AP showed good performance in administration of first dose of Covid jab by registering 76 per cent even by surpassing national average of 74 per cent, it intends to expedite administration of the jab to the remaining targeted population even by setting up a state-level task force to monitor it shortly. However, we advise the people to strictly comply with Covid appropriate behaviour to ensure safety from the virus to all the people.”

Meanwhile, AP collected penalty of Rs 32.32 crore from 40.76 lakh people for violation of Covid appropriate behaviour so far.