Tamil Nadu govt requests additional 1 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses from Centre

Tamil Nadu government urged the Centre to provide additional 1 crore vaccines for a mega vaccination drive. The drive will begin on September 12. 

Chennai: Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday urged the Centre to provide additional one crore COVID-19 vaccine doses for a mega vaccination camp scheduled to begin from September 12. Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian in a letter to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya requested for an additional one crore COVID vaccines along with the equal number of 0.5 ml of AD Syringes or 1ml/2ml syringes to the state. This is in addition to the already-committed 1.04 crore vaccines for government COVID-19 vaccination centres, he said. He pointed out that as a next step to increase the COVID-19 vaccination drive in the State, it was decided to conduct the "Mega Vaccination Camp on COVID Vaccination" on a weekly basis, starting from September 12."This was to cover the left-out unvaccinated eligible population aged above 18 years in the State without diluting the daily vaccination drive," said the state minister. Subramanian further said that the Government of India, till September 5 has supplied 3,31,84,824 doses of COVID vaccines and 1,83,95,400 (0.5ml) AD Syringes to the state. "The eligible population above 18 years in Tamil Nadu for two doses of COVID Vaccination is about 6.06 crore. Till date September 5, the state has covered the first dose of 2.63 crore beneficiaries and 68.91 lakh beneficiaries vaccinated with both doses in government COVID vaccination centres," he said. The state is vaccinating about 5 lakh doses per day for the last seven days. Considering the current pace of vaccinations the current supplies are adequate for only three to four days making it difficult to plan for covering the eligible left out the population."The remaining eligible population above 18 years in Tamil Nadu who need to be vaccinated with the first dose Is 3.44 crore and the persons due for the second dose due is about 18.89 lakhs as of September 5. This was already represented to the Union Health Minister during the recent meeting in New Delhi on September 3," said the Tamil Nadu health minister.