Shillong: Meghalaya Deputy Chief Minister, Prestone Tynsong, announced on Tuesday that the Meghalaya government will provide free vaccines for 18-44 age groups.
Tynsong said this after reviewing the COVID-19 situation that the government has already paid for 42,000 vaccine doses to the Serum Institute of India in Pune. Each dose cost the government Rs 300. He said that the government has decided to give these vaccines for free to all beneficiaries.
However, vaccination of people in this age group has already started in other parts of the country. Meghalaya has not yet started it as the enrollment of beneficiaries is underway.
Tynsong said that the exercise has been delayed due to shortage of vaccines which is not under the control of the government.
Also, the state is set to get additional 75,000 doses after Health Minister AL Hek had taken up the matter with the Union Health Minister, which are meant for government hospitals.
The report stated that Meghalaya has enough stock of essential commodities, as informed by Tynsong while addressing media persons after a review meeting with Department officials on Tuesday.
''Of the 200 hospitalised persons, 180 have been administered oxygen. As on Tuesday, the State has recorded 339 fresh COVID-19 cases while 204 persons have recovered from the infection,'' he added.
Tynsong further added that the Centre has also sanctioned free five kilograms of rice to each member of a family for the AAY and PHH category under the PMGKAY scheme for the months of May and June.
Meanwhile, the State on Monday recorded six new fatalities and 246 fresh cases, taking the total number of deaths since the pandemic started to 185 and 1,884 active cases.
Tynsong also said that at this juncture, lockdown is not an option even as he fervently appealed to the public to make sure that they do not get infected with the virus. When asked if the hospitals in the State have enough beds to admit COVID patients, he said that ''at present it is still manageable."