The number of people missing their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine remains a cause for concern in Tamil Nadu, with the latest data showing that at least 3.94 lakh missed their second dose of Covaxin within the Indian Council of Medical Research-advised window of a maximum of six weeks.
A similar analysis done by The Hindu two months ago showed that 1.41 lakh people had missed their second dose as of second week of June. By then, the State had administered a total of 16.6 lakh doses of Covaxin, including the first and the second dose. Since then, the total number of Covaxin doses administered has more than doubled to 35.6 lakh as of August 15.
Number has doubled
Consequently, the number of people who missed their second dose within the six-week period has also more than doubled from 1.41 lakh to 3.94 lakh.
In other words, 22%, or roughly one in every five persons who took the first dose six weeks ago, failed to take their second dose.
According to the data available on vaccination done through government-run centres and camps, 17,72,296 people had taken their first dose of Covaxin as of July 4.
Ideally, all of them should have taken their second dose by August 15, which marked the end of the six-week window. However, only 13,78,779 people had taken their second dose as of August 15.
The difference of 3.94 lakh is only the minimum number of people who had missed their second dose. The actual figure could be higher, as the number of second doses administered as of August 15 may include those who took their second dose in the past four to six weeks as well. While people may have missed their second dose of Covishield as well, it was difficult to ascertain the number as the window advised by ICMR for Covishield kept changing.
Chennai was the only district that improved its performance in closing the gap with people missing their second Covaxin shot. Only 12% of the people who took their first dose as of July 4 missed their second dose by August 15, when compared to the State’s average of 22%. It was also the only district where the number of people who missed their second dose declined from around 60,000 in mid-June to roughly 50,000 on August 15, despite a sharp increase in the doses administered.
J. Radhakrishnan, Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department, said the vaccine supply constraints faced by the State earlier had considerably eased.
Another senior official said that while more people came forward to get vaccinated soon after the second wave, the momentum seemed to have reduced of late. He said even those who failed to take their second dose within the stipulated window shouldn’t bother about the delay and take the shot as soon as possible.
