The Andhra Pradesh government has announced that it will be expanding its COVID-19 vaccination drive in urban areas from Sunday, even as the state recorded 585 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, taking the tally of active cases to 2,946. So far, at least 2,376 people have been vaccinated at four centres — Solasa, Kaza, Chillakallu and Chandragudem villages — in Guntur and Krishna districts as part of the drive.
Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday reviewed the immunisation programme and directed his officials to overcome the shortcomings. Jagan told officials to identify two villages in each mandal from all the 13 districts to take up vaccination drive four days a week.
Currently, vaccination is being done for those aged above 60 years and persons aged between 45 to 59 years with comorbidities at all government and private health facilities The Chief Minister also directed his officials to make necessary arrangements to vaccinate more than 1 crore people, with a target of inoculating 3 lakh people a day. Currently, 2,567 vaccination centres are functioning across the state.
Jagan directed officials that each mandal should have two primary health centres (PHCs) and each PHC should be assigned with two doctors. Likewise, he instructed that each mandal should have two 104 ambulances. The Chief Minister enquired about the availability of doctors associated with PHCs and 104 vehicles and directed them to expedite doctors recruitment as per requirement.
Meanwhile, Health officials clarified that there is no requirement of prior registration for vaccination.
Meanwhile, the new infections reported on Wednesday pushed the total COVID-19 cases recorded in the state to over 8.95 lakh, while the total recovery count mounted to over 8.84 lakh. On Wednesday, Chittoor district reported 128 cases, the highest in the state, followed by the districts of Guntur (99), Visakhapatnam (81), Krishna (63), East Godavari (42), Anantapur (36), Kurnool (35), Nellore (23), Srikakulam (22), West Godavari (20), Prakasam (16), Vizianagaram (12) and Kadapa (8).
East Godavari's tally has crossed 1.25 lakh, the highest among all Andhra districts, while the state's positivity rate fell to 6.03%, which is still higher than the national average of 4.9%. Meanwhile, four more persons have succumbed to the virus in a 24-hour period, raising the state's toll to 7,197. With 35,066 more tests, the total number of tests conducted in Andhra Pradesh crossed the 1.48 crore-mark on Wednesday.
(With IANS Inputs)