People below 40 years more affected to COVID: Union Minister

Speaking at the virtual press conference on Saturday, Mr Reddy said that the Centre has allocated 1,594 PSA units for oxygen production by Air to the states. Of them, 52 have been allocated to Telangana.

He said  that the Central government was making all efforts to ensure that there is no shortage of oxygen, vaccines and Remdisivir injections in the country.

Mr Reddy said that the Centre has decided to produce Covaxin, Covishield and Sputnik V vaccines through 16 companies and expecting that they would produce 250 to 300 crore doses of vaccines  between September and December this year.

Stating that India is occupied in third place in vaccination programme, the Union Minister said and expected to reach first place by December.

He said that apart personnel from Paramilitary, Railway Protection Force (RPF) under Home Department, Army, Air Force and Navy were been utilised for Covid relief activities.

The Minister said  85 oxygen express trains were running across the country and  9,446 metric tonnes of oxygen was produced domestically.

Mr Reddy  said that the Centre has supplied 51,000 ventilators to the states. Of them 1,400 ventilators were given to Telangana.

Stating that the states can import vaccines and Remdisivir injections directly from other countries, he said and expressed grief over the Ruia Hospital incident in Tirupati where 11 Covid-19 patients died due to non-availability of oxygen.

The Minister also found fault with the Telangana government for stopping ambulances from Andhra Pradesh carrying Covid-19 patients for providing treatment here.