Telangana to administer CorBEvax from April 19

Hyderabad, April 18: The Telangana government has arranged 5 lakh doses of CorBEvax, in spite of the acute shortage of Covid-19 vaccines, a top health official said on Tuesday.

The vaccine doses have been arranged in view of the rise in Covid-19 cases in many countries around the world as well in some states within the country.

Director of Public Health and Family Welfare Dr G. Srinivasa Rao announced that the vaccine will be made available at all government primary health centres and urban primary health centres from Wednesday (April 19).

CorBEvax can be administered as a precautionary dose to those beneficiaries who have taken Covaxin or Covishield as first and second dose, as it has been approved by the Centre for heterologous administration.

The state government has made all arrangements to ensure uninterrupted availability of Covid vaccines to all the eligible citizens at government Covid vaccine centres like primary health centres and urban primary health centres.

The director of public health appealed to people to use this opportunity and ensure that all the left out and missing doses are taken.

The state government had last month written to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to provide additional Covid booster shots for the state. However, with the Centre asking the states to directly procure Covid vaccines and booster shots from the open market, the Telangana government had decided to procure 15 lakh does from Hyderabad-based Biological E to resume vaccination.

Telangana on Monday reported 41 new Covid cases while 30 people recovered. The recovery rate remained at 99.48 per cent. The state has 269 active Covid cases.