Chennai, June 28(BPNS)

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin has written a letter to Union health minister Dr. Harshvardhan to reduce the allocation of Covid-19 vaccines to private hospitals from 25% to 10%.

In a three page letter written on Monday, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister said that there was underutilization of the allocated vaccines by the private sector. M.K. Stalin in the letter mentioned that the 25% allocation was very high as far as the private sector was concerned and the volume of vaccinations conducted by the private sector.

The Chief Minister in the letter said that in Tamil Nadu, 1.43 crore doses have been used out of which the private hospitals have used only 6.5 lakh doses of vaccines which was roughly 4.5%.

He said that even in June of the 43.5 lakh vaccines administered in the state, the private hospitals contribution was just 4.5 lakh vaccines which were around 10%.

Stalin said that there was a gross mismatch in the availability of vaccines between the government sector and the private sector and added that the private hospitals in the state have an availability of 7-8 lakh doses of vaccine which is equivalent to do one-month performance while the government sector has only 2 lakh doses which would be completed in a single day.

He also urged the Union health minister to evaluate the doses allotted to various states in terms of doses allotted  per thousand population and ensure that necessary compensatory allocations are made to states who have been allotted lower  number of doses per capita.

Stalin had earlier written a letter to the central government seeking an allocation of one crore vaccine doses to correct the inadequate allotment in the earlier days.