Shillong, July 13: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma is hoping to vaccinate the State’s eligible population by September end or early October with the vaccination drive expected to be ramped up to 20,000 to 25,000 doses daily with the engagement of various leaders at all levels to enhance the inoculation programme.

Another relief for the state is that its positivity rate has dropped below the 10 percent mark. “Only two districts out of 11 districts in the state have positivity rate of over 10 percent,” informed the CM.

Sangma informed this after the interaction session with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday. The PM interacted with the chief ministers of North Eastern states to review the Covid-19 situation in the region. The region has become a cause of concern as cases elsewhere in the country have reduced drastically but the region is reporting high number of cases.

Thank PM, Sh. @narendramodi ji for sharing our concerns by taking stock of the Covid situation in North East in the video conference with all NE CMs today also attended by Union Home Minister, Sh. @AmitShah Ji, Union Health Minister Sh. @mansukhmandviya Ji & officials. pic.twitter.com/xIY7LpxQhr

— Conrad Sangma (@SangmaConrad) July 13, 2021

Meghalaya’s current vaccination drive averages administering 10,000 doses daily for the last 30 days or so. The state has approximately 20 lakh people in the age group 18 years and above. So far, over 8 lakh people have been given the first jab with over 1 lakh receiving both doses.

However,  the state’s vaccination rate is below the national average.

Meghalaya CM told the PM that in the coming weeks and months, the state’s vaccination drive is expected to be enhanced to a daily figure of 20,000 to 25,000 as MLAs, various faith leaders,  MDCs, DCs, headmen and many others including from government agencies are aggressively reaching out to people to get inoculated.

“We are pushing the vaccination on mission mode… Seen positive results in the last few days… we are hopeful that we will see the rate of vaccination go higher up in the coming weeks and months… We are hopeful that if we are able to pick upto 20,000 to 25,000 vaccination per day, we should be able to complete vaccination of all the eligible population by the end of September or early October,” he said.

He, however, insisted that the vaccinations per day must reach above the 20,000 mark to reach the target of September end or early October.

At the same time, Sangma also thanked government of India for providing the vaccine  free of cost and supply of PSA oxygen plants for different districts,  numbering 14, oxygen cylinders,  oxygen concentrators and different equipment and infrastructures and continuous support to the state in this difficult time.

Meanwhile,  he shared that the PM has urged all chief ministers to pay more attention on the vaccination drive as the vaccination drive is the only way in the long run to beat the Covid-19 virus.