Chennai, June 27(BPNS)

Former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and AIADMK Chief  Coordinator, O Panneerselvam has called upon Chief Minister M.K.Stalin to expedite lakhs of vaccines that are unused in private hospitals of the state with immediate effect. In a statement on Saturday, the senior leader said that the state would need 16 crores more vaccines and that as of June 26, only 1.44 crore doses of vaccine have been administered to the public.

OPS said, “This  means that less than 10 percent of the state’s residents have received both doses of the vaccine.”

He said that 13.59 lakh doses of vaccine have been allotted to private hospitals in Tamil Nadu during the months of May and June and that over 8 lakh doses of vaccine are still to be administered. He said that in July again 17.75 lakhs of vaccines are to be given to private hospitals.

The former Chief Minister said,” This means that the private hospitals will have over 25 lakh vials of vaccine”.He said that people of Tamil Nadu approach government hospitals for vaccination as it is free of cost and called upon the Chief Minister to make necessary arrangements to use the unused vaccine vials of private hospitals and distribute among the government hospitals so that more common people are vaccinated.

It may be noted that on the closing day of the assembly session on Wednesday, the Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had lashed out against the previous AIADMK government in not having properly managed the Covid pandemic and cited examples as to how his government was managing and controlling the second wave of the pandemic.

The response of the former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam is seen by political observers as a response to Stalin’s outburst in the legislative assembly.