‘Allow State to declare cases of virus variants’
The Hindu
Tamil Nadu government places demands before Central team
Tamil Nadu on Monday reiterated its demand that the genome sequencing centre in Chennai be put on a par with the Union Government facilities in Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad.
Health Minister Ma. Subramanian, who took part in a meeting with the visiting officials of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme here, said he had also reiterated the State’s demand that the two vaccine production centres, at Chengalpattu and Coonoor, be allowed to produce vaccines to overcome the shortfall during the COVID-19 pandemic. “On an average, we are vaccinating 3.26 lakh persons a day,” he said.
“We are urging the Union government to permit us to declare cases of the novel coronavirus variants, such as Omicron, because the State has established a genome sequencing facility at a cost of ₹4 crore on the Directorate of Medical Services campus here,” he said.