The Telangana government on Wednesday decided to vaccinate 6 lakh people against Covid-19 on priority

They included government employees in various departments, dialysis and thalassemia patients, auto and cab drivers, bank and postal employees, public representatives of urban and local bodies, pujaris, imams and pastors.

The decision was taken at a meeting Finance Minister T.Harish Rao and Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar had with senior officials on the implementation of Covid vaccination drive in the state.

The minister directed that vaccination of the remaining 6 lakh persons from identified high exposure categories in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), the Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation (GWMC) and all other urban local bodies of the state should be completed in the next four days.

The meeting decided to vaccinate another 6 lakh people in various categories on priority. They include 16,000 dialysis and thalassemia patients, 3 lakh auto and cab drivers in ULBs, 25,000 engineering staff working in all the engineering departments, 45,000 field staff working in power sector, 5,000 field level employees in agriculture, 30,000 field staff of revenue earning departments, 6000 IKP field staff, 15,000 bank employees in the districts, 13,000 postal employees, 60,000 public representatives of urban and rural local bodies, 35,000 RMP and PMPs practising in rural areas and 50,000 pujaris, imams and church pastors.

The meeting noted that payment had been made to vaccine manufacturing companies for 16 lakhs doses which were yet to be supplied. It was therefore also decided to appoint a special officer to pursue the matter and ensure that receipt of this stock was expedited.