Andhra Pradesh on Saturday received 6 lakh additional doses of COVID-19 vaccine. "At least five lakh doses of Covishield from Pune's Serum Institute of India (SII) and one lakh Covaxin doses from Hyderabad's Bharat Biotech were received on Saturday," said a health official. This comes a day after Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him for 60 lakh more doses for the state.
Jagan wrote to Modi that if the state receives 60 lakh more doses of the vaccine, he will ensure that all the citizens in the state above 45 years are vaccinated for the first dose in the next three weeks.
Making use of its grassroots governance system of village and ward volunteers, Andhra Pradesh managed to inoculate a record number of 6.28 lakh people on a single day on Wednesday.
Last week, the state received a total of 6.4 lakh doses from the Union government in two batches on Monday and Tuesday, soon after the vaccine stock in the state was depleted. This stock was also soon used up, as the state health officials administered a record 6,28,961 vaccine doses on Wednesday, and 28,677 vaccine doses were administered on Thursday.
Thanking PM Modi for the recent supply of 6.4 lakh doses, Jagan said that Andhra Pradesh was able to vaccinate a record number of 6,28,961 persons on Wednesday, as part of the Tika Utsav. “This is the highest single day COVID vaccination number by any state in the country,” Jagan claimed, while requesting the Union government to send 60 lakh more doses.
Amid the rapid surge of COVID-19 cases, CM Jagan on Friday ruled out the possibility of a fresh lockdown in the state, to ensure that economic activity is not affected. Addressing a videoconference with all District Collectors, Jagan said that this was a troubling time, but the state must contain COVID-19 without imposing a lockdown.
Read: Andhra govt won't impose lockdown: CM Jagan amid COVID-19 surge
With IANS inputs