Vaccination disrupted in TN due to lack of doses
The State is facing vaccine shortage yet again, forcing many inoculation sites to remain closed, said Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Monday.
About two lakh doses of Covishield are expected to be delivered by evening, officials said.
Currently, the State has a stock of about 2.07 lakh doses, and has inoculated 1,41,50,249 persons as on Sunday. After the supply from the Union government picked up, the vaccination drive had gathered pace in the last week.
The highest in a day so far was 4.32 lakh doses administered on Thursday. “At least 7-8 lakh people can easily be vaccinated a day. So Chief Minister MK Stalin has requested increased allocation of vaccines to Tamilnadu,” said Minister Subramanian.
Noting that the allocation for July was 71 lakh doses, he added that the State had the capacity to administer about 2 crore doses a month. The Minister expressed hope that the supply of vaccines would get regularised from 1 July , and all districts would get regular supply as soon as the State Vaccine Store receives supply.
Talking about the preparedness for the third wave, he said one lakh beds and 9,000 MT medical oxygen were kept ready. Also, 7,000 beds were available to treat mucormycosis. “There are 10,000 beds for children, and medication for them are in stock, as children are expected to be at a higher risk in the third wave,” Subramanian said.
As the monsoon season has arrived, Health officials are working on desilting drains and initiating cleaning drives to prevent any outbreak of fever cases or other mosquito-borne diseases, he added.