On the 24th of March, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) urged the Telangana Government to provide the COVID-19 vaccination for free to everyone.
Dr. Sravan Dasoju, the National Spokesperson of the AICC, said, “I humbly appeal to KCR to emulate the Tamil Nadu model in the state to vaccinate everyone. And also request him to massively enhance the free access and availability of COVID-19 vaccine to all before we succumb to the second wave of coronavirus surge in the country (sic.)”
The appeal of free supply of COVID-19 vaccine to K. Chandrashekar Rao, the Chief Minister of Telangana, was made in the wake of a surge in the Novel Coronavirus cases. Compared to the previous 100 single day cases, the State has now started recording more than 300 cases of COVID-19.
In regard to this, the Telangana Government also announced to shut schools and colleges from the 24th of March. Recently, from February, the offline classes for students of class 5 and above began in schools. However, due to the rise in cases, the Telangana Education Minister announced the closure of educational institutions.
The AICC Spokespersons said, “Since one of the vaccine producers, Bharat Biotech that supplies Covaxin, is from Hyderabad, why cannot the government place an indent for procuring sufficient quantities of COVID-19 vaccine doses and supply it for free to all the citizens of Telangana? Covaxin is our vaccine and it should be given to our people first. This must be the highest priority for the Government as it is the prime concern considering the previous experiences.”
Telangana stands at the top spot in the wastage of the COVID-19 vaccine in the country which is a major cause of concern. Therefore, the AICC spokesperson urged KCR to scrap the improper guidelines issued by the central government that restrict vaccines for people aged above 45 years and suggested the Telangana Chief Minister go ahead with a comprehensive approach that can ensure vaccine reaches everywhere including to apartments, colonies and bastis in the state. He also demanded the setting up COVID-19 vaccine kiosks across Telangana.
Speaking about the availability of COVID-19 vaccine at hospitals, Mr. Dosaju said, “All the primary health centres, Basti Dawakhanas, government and private hospitals including the small clinics in Telangana must be provided an adequate number of vaccine doses for immunization while the private hospitals’ network should also be utilized to expedite the process of COVID-19 vaccination in the state to protect our people from the deadly coronavirus infection.” He said the Tamil Nadu model to administer COVID-19 vaccine would help the Telangana Government to ensure every citizen has been given the doses, especially when the State is likely to witness a second wave of COVID-19.
Meanwhile, the nationwide COVID-19 vaccine started from the 16th of January. In Telangana, so far close to 9 lakh people were given COVID-19 doses.
It is to be noted, there are close to 4 crore citizens of Telangana.
