Telangana governor inspects Covid-19 vaccine dry run in Hyderabad

Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan urged people not to hesitate to take Covid-19 vaccine, saying it was safe

Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Saturday urged people not to hesitate to take 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.

She visited the Urban Health Centre (UHC) at Tilak Nagar in the city to inspect COVID-19 vaccine dry run held there.

The governor also inspected the cold chain system, vaccination rooms and the vaccination process at the UHC.

Later, in a tweet, Soundararajan, a medical doctor said, "Appreciate arrangements of state and central governments to vaccinate eligible beneficiaries.

Public should come forward without any hesitation or fear of vaccines due to misinformation. Safety of vaccines established beyond doubts by health authorities."

The vaccination process would be taken up in four stages in the state and that around 80 lakh people would be vaccinated, she said.

As part of the first phase of vaccination, around five lakh people would be administered the vaccine.

The governor congratulated the Centre for making the vaccination process possible and the state government for the arrangements.

While 2020 was a year of pandemic, 2021 would be a "year of protection," she said.

"I am really very happy. 2020 was a year of pandemic...

Now 2021 is going to be a year of protection," she told reporters here.

Meanwhile, state Health Minister Eatala Rajender said the dry run was being held at four centres in Hyderabad and three centres at Mahabubnagar.

The state government has already trained 10,000 healthcare personnel for administering vaccines and the state has the capacity to vaccinate 10 lakh per day, he said.

The Centre has indicated that five lakh doses of vaccines will be provided initially, followed by another 10 lakh and one crore doses subsequently, he said.

The state government would distribute the vaccines as it receives from the Centre.

The vaccine shots would be provided initially to the healthcare personnel, he added.