Finance Minister T. Harish Rao has directed the Health department officials to complete vaccination of around six lakh persons identified under the high exposure category in the Greater Hyderabad, Greater Warangal and other urban local bodies in four days.
The Minister, accompanied by Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, reviewed the ongoing vaccination drive in the State with senior officials on Wednesday. It was decided to prioritise categories of people with high risk and exposure for taking up vaccination.
Accordingly, 16,000 dialysis and Thalassemia patients, three lakh auto and cab drivers in the ULBs and 25,000 engineering staff in all the engineering departments had been prioritized. All the 45,000 field staff of power sector, agriculture sector (5,000), revenue earning departments (30,000), IKP (6,000), bank employees (15,000), postal staff (13,000), representatives of urban and rural local bodies (60,000), RMPs/PMPs in rural areas (35,000) and pujaris, imams and church pastors (50,000) would be vaccinated in the next few days.
The Minister expressed concern that payment was made to vaccine manufacturing for supply of 16 lakh doses, but they were yet to be supplied. It was decided to appoint a special officer to pursue the matter and ensure that the stocks of the doses were received expeditiously.
