Chennai, September 14 (BPNS)
Tamil Nadu health minister, Ma Subramanian has said that even after the resounding success of the mega vaccination against Covid -19 held on Sunday, the state is still vulnerable to Covid -19. He said that there is still a large number of eligible population in the state who needs to be administered even the first dose of the vaccine and hence the state cant relax on its achievements.
He mentioned this in a letter written to Union health minister Mansukh Mandiviya citing the need for more vaccines as extra quota from the central government. in the letter written on Monday, Tamil Nadu health minister requested the Union health minister to provide 50 lakh vaccines per week in addition to the present supply so that the entire population is inoculated with at least one dose of vaccine by the end of October 2021.
Tamil Nadu has an adult population of 6.06 crore and by Sunday after the mega vaccination drive it had inoculated 4.01 crore of its population with atleast one dose of the vaccine. The health minister in the letter pointed out that the population left out is a worry and hence the state health department cannot be complacent until at least one dose of the jab is administered to every eligible person of the state of Tamil Nadu.
Ma Subramanian said that the state had administered vaccines to 28.91 lakh people during the mega vaccination drive on Sunday and added that daily the state of Tamil Nadu was administering around 5 lakh doses of vaccines. He said that added to the number of people vaccinated during the mega vaccine drive the state has a capacity to inoculate 50 lakh, people, a week and hence wants to make use of this opportunity.
The state health minister also said that Tamil Nadu will be organizing such mega vaccination camps every week so that the entire population is covered by at least one dose of the vaccine.
He said that the direction and the support provided by the state Chief Minister, M.K.Stalin has helped the state health department to conduct such a massive vaccination drive in the state and that this was a landmark as far as the Tamil Nadu health department is concerned.
The minister thanked the Union health minister for supporting the state of Tamil Nadu with a an adequate supply of vaccines and said that he was expecting more vaccines supply from the central government for conducting mega vaccination camps and to inoculate the population of the state at the earliest.
