The Telangana government has the capacity to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to about 10 lakh people per day once it is made available, Health Minister Eatala Rajender said on Friday and hoped that the state would not have to face the adverse impact of the virus this year.
"Since the Union government has indicated that it would provide the vaccine on time, we are geared up and have trained about 10,000 health care personnel. Telangana has the capacity to administer vaccines to about 10 lakh per day once it is made available. Therefore, I feel the situation of facing the adverse impact of the virus would not arise this year," he told reporters in Hyderabad on the sidelines of an event.
Eatala Rajender also said that a dry run was being held at four centres in Hyderabad and three centres at Mahabubnagar on Saturday. Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Saturday urged people not to hesitate to take a COVID-19 vaccine, saying it was safe.
"Vaccine is safe. People all over the world are taking the vaccine. There is not even a single incident of fatality due to the vaccination till now. People should not be afraid to take it," the governor said in a release after she visited the Urban Health Centre (UHC) at Tilak Nagar in Hyderabad to inspect COVID-19 vaccine dry run held there.
Meanwhile, Telangana added 293 new cases to its coronavirus tally, which surged past 2.87 lakh while two more fatalities pushed the toll to 1,546 on Saturday. Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) accounted for the most number of cases with 72, followed by adjoining Rangareddy and Medchal Malkajgiri districts with 34 and 26 respectively, a government bulletin said on Saturday providing details as of 8 pm on January 1.
The total number of cases stood at 2.87 lakh including 2.79 lakh recoveries. As many as 5,571 patients are under treatment and 26,590 samples were tested on Friday. Cumulatively, over 69.51 lakh samples have been tested. The samples tested per million population was over 1.86 lakh, the bulletin said.
The case fatality rate in the state was 0.53%, while it was 1.4% at the national level. The recovery rate in Telangana was 97.52%, while it was 96.1% in the country.