Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh government aims to administer Covid19 vaccine free of cost to nearly 1.5 crore youths aged above 18 years from May 1. State health authorities are getting some 1,400 vaccination centres ready for the purpose.
From the start of the C-vaccination in the state on January 16, some nine lakh persons have been given the jabs so far. These included frontline warriors including health care staff and those above 45 years, the original target being 11 lakh persons.
“A good number of people aged above 45 years, out of a total of nearly 80 lakh, have been vaccinated so far while vaccination of both the first and second dose is going on for the remaining targeted beneficiaries,” officials said.
Though the state has big plans for administering the jabs to those between 18 and 45 years, the coverage will be based on the quantum of vaccine doses that are available to the state.
The state has set a record by administering 6.2 lakh doses of the jab in a day, thanks to the presence of a strong health infrastructure backed by the commitment of the health care personnel to fight the menace.
“The health department is planning to administer nearly five lakh doses per day subject to availability of doses in order to vaccinate all the targeted beneficiaries in an expeditious manner,” officials said.
On the other hand, with more number of people turning up to undergo Covid19 test and the state government deciding to conduct only RT-PCR test, only a limited number of tests could be done in some districts. Health officials in the districts admit they are having huge backlogs of swab samples for the test and hence not taking fresh swab samples.
The state government plans to address the issue by resuming TrueNat tests from April 26 and conducting Rapid Antigen tests also, besides the ongoing RT-PCR tests.
State Covid-19 nodal officer Dr Arja Srikanth said, “There are nearly 1.5 crore youths aged between 18 and 45 to get the jab and the arrangements are being made. We are also expediting the tests to cover more number of people even by way of TrueNat and Rapid Antigen tests besides the RT-PCR.”
