One crore people in Andhra Pradesh to receive Covid vaccine in first phase

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, on Friday, told the Assembly that the Central government has promised one crore Covid-19 vaccine shots to the state in the first phase.

Detailing on the breakup of who would receive the vaccine shots in the first phase in Andhra Pradesh, CM YS Jagan said that as per the guidelines of the Central government, arrangements will be made to administer doses to 3.6 healthcare workers, 7 lakh frontline workers, and 90 lakh individuals who are aged above 50 years. Police workforce, ward volunteers, staff nurses, Asha workers, ANMs, medical and dental students, nursing students, Anganwadi workers, hospital sanitisation staff, other staff at hospitals including technicians, from both government and private sectors, make up the healthcare and frontline workers, the CM added.

Stating the necessity of cold chain storage units to store the vaccine between 2-8 degrees centigrade, he informed that 4065 cold storage units have been set up across the state so far. The Chief Minister also said that adequate manpower will be assigned to handle the task of administering the vaccine shots. 19,000 ANMs and Asha workers will be used for the same, he said. “While the state sets up cold storage units, the Central government said that it would be providing cold boxes and syringes. Similarly, the state has been told to ready the vehicles to be used for transportation purposes. So far, we have procured 29 refrigerated vehicles.  We have even set up taskforces at different levels in the state and issued SOPs to them,” Mr. Reddy said.

On Thursday, Andhra Pradesh reported 599 new coronavirus cases. As of 4 December, the southern state accounted for a total of 8,70,675 cases. While 8,57,233 individuals have recovered, 6422 cases have been marked active. The state’s death toll reached 7020 with 6 patients succumbing to the virus between Thursday and Friday.