CM seek Centre’s support for Meghalaya to become fully vaccinated

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaMay 17, 2021

Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma has sought the support of the Centre to ensure Meghalaya is fully vaccinated.

“I had a telephonic conversation with Dr Harsh Vardhan yesterday and I requested him that our state’s population is not as large so may be a strategy of saturation of these locations which are easy to saturate like the smallest states in the north east could be in one way to ensure few circle and few states and regions becomes fully vaccinated – so I am hopeful that we get a positive response for that,” Sangma told reporters on Monday.

“Even if we don’t get a full vaccination, we are hopeful that  we will get more than what is being allotted to us right now – so I had put in that request to the minister,” he said.

Stating that vaccination is a key part of the government’s strategy, Sangma however said, “but while that happens, containment and preventive measures will have to be followed and then we will be able to see the trend go down.”

Asked, the Chief Minister said the vaccines for the 45 years and above is available in all the districts and the vaccination is going on.

“80 percent of the vaccination centres are for the 45 plus. Therefore, the vaccination programme is going on as planned,” he said.

He however said of course there is lots of shortage in the supply of vaccination and that is what is causing a bit of inconveniences for the people.

“We are trying to manage with the quota that we are getting and we are hopeful that in the coming weeks the production will go up, we have seen India would be able to touch close to 15 crore of vaccines per month by July-August. If those kinds of numbers go up, then we should be able to see the vaccination programme improve. So we are waiting for supply,” he said.

Stating that the shortage is huge in the state, Sangma said the state has only received 42,000 shots for the 18 plus category against the requirement of over 30 lakh doses.