Chennai, July 1(BPNS)
The vaccination drive which was on stagnant in Tamil Nadu for the past two days due to the shortage of vaccines will resume on Thursday after the state received 2.5 lakh doses on vaccines by Wednesday evening. Vaccine shots have been despatched to all districts by late evening.
In the month of June the state was allocated 42 lakh doses of vaccine and the centre allocated an additional 5 lakh doses. The 2.5 lakh doses which were sanctioned add up to this and this took the total allocation to Tamil Nadu 49.5 lakh doses of vaccines or close to 50 lakh doses.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, the state witnessed flash protests with people becoming violent after several vaccine centres displayed “No Vaccine” boards. In Madurai people had queued up since 3 am for a jab in front of the Elango Corporation Boys high school turned violent and shouted slogans after health department officials announced that there was no vaccine available.
The Greater Chennai Corporation had already announced on its website and other mediums that the vaccine was not available on Wednesday.
Even though the state has received 2.5 lakh doses of vaccine on late Wednesday, the health minister Ma Subramanian said that it would last only for a day and added that the state is vaccinating maximum people to prevent a third wave of the pandemic in the state of Tamil Nadu.
In July the state is expected to receive 71.5 lakh doses of the vaccine but 17.75 lakh doses have been set aside for private hospitals. This means that the state will have just above 53 lakh doses of vaccine which is only 3 lakh doses above that of June. With a high awareness rate and grass-root awareness by political parties through door-to-door campaigning on the necessity of vaccination as the only way to prevent the pandemic, people are queuing up to get a shot. However, the shortage of vaccines is disappointing them and this could lead to unrest.
Tamil Nadu medical and family welfare minister, Ma Subramanian while speaking to BPNS said, “We have the health infrastructure to vaccinate even 6 lakh people a day but we are receiving fewer doses and unless the central government increase our vaccine dose quantity we may not be able to vaccinate the whole population on a war footing. Chief Minister M.K.Stalin is taking up the matter with the Union health minister and the Government of India to increase the vaccine quota for the state of Tamil Nadu.”
