Hyderabad: The All India Congress Committee (AICC) has appealed to Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao for ensuring the free supply of COVID-19 vaccine to everyone in the state amid the recent surge in coronavirus infections.
“I humbly appeal to KCR to emulate the Tamil Nadu model in the state to vaccinate everyone. And also request him to massively enhance the free access and availability of COVID-19 vaccine to all before we succumb to the second wave of coronavirus surge in the country,” Dr Sravan Dasoju, AICC national spokesperson, told ANI.
Welcoming the government’s decision to shut schools and colleges, Sravan also requested the Chief Minister to enhance the facilities and necessary infrastructure to provide the access and availability of the COVID-19 vaccine and expedite the vaccination program through a special drive in the state with immediate effect.
“Since one of the vaccine producers, Bharat Biotech that supplies Covaxin, is from Hyderabad, why cannot the government place an indent for procuring sufficient quantities of COVID-19 vaccine doses and supply it for free to all the citizens of Telangana? Covaxin is our vaccine and it should be given to our people first. This must be the highest priority for the government as it is the prime concern considering the previous experiences,” Sravan said.
Telangana stands at the top spot in the wastage of the COVID-19 vaccine in the country which is a major cause of concern. Therefore, the AICC spokesperson urged KCR to scrap the improper guidelines issued by the central government that restrict vaccines for people aged above 45 years and suggested the Telangana Chief Minister go ahead with a comprehensive approach that can ensure vaccine reaches everywhere including to apartments, colonies and bastis in the state.
He demanded setting up Covid-19 vaccine kiosks across Telangana.
“All the primary health centres, Basti Dawakhanas, government and private hospitals including the small clinics in Telangana must be provided an adequate number of vaccine doses for immunization while the private hospitals’ network should also be utilized to expedite the process of COVID-19 vaccination in the state to protect our people from the deadly coronavirus infection,” he further said.