MoS Kishan Reddy appeals to Telangana govt to restart COVID-19 vaccination drive

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], May 22 (ANI): Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, G Kishan Reddy on Friday appealed to the Telangana government to restart the COVID-19 vaccination drive that has been put on halt for the last one week.
Reddy, while the inauguration of the food distribution program to needy by Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) told ANI, "I appeal to the Telangana State Government to restart the Vaccination drive that has been put on halt for the last one week, while the state has nearly about 6 lakh doses of vaccine in its hands."
He further appealed to the government to at least vaccinate the people who are eligible for the second dose.
In order to help the poor and needy people during the lockdown, the Union Minister said that BJP National President JP Nadda has given a call to party workers across the country to come forward and help those who are unable to feed themselves.
"To serve the poor people, the central government has decided to provide them with free ration along with 5 kilograms of rice. Nearly about 80 crore people have been benefited from this free ration distribution program this year," he said.
He further said that the BJP party workers and Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) of Hyderabad are serving cooked food to the poor and needy people.
He appealed to all the NGOs to come forward and help the government in feeding the poor.
Reddy said the Telangana government has received about 1,400 ventilators so far from the Central government.
He further said that in India from its post-independence stage to nearly about eight months earlier, there were only 1,800 to 2,000 ventilators across the nation in government hospitals.
The minister said that nearly about 51,000 ventilators have been given to government hospitals in the last eight months.
He mentioned that if the state government needs further ventilators, the Centre will do the needful.
Regarding the black fungus infections, Reddy said that the central government is taking all the required steps and trying to import medicines from abroad.
As many as 3,464 new coronavirus cases and 25 deaths have been recorded in Telangana on Friday.
According to the State Health Department, the cumulative caseload stands at 5,47,727 including 5,00,247 discharges and 3085 deaths. At present, there are 44,395 active infections in the state. (ANI)