With the Union government committing to allocate an additional 14,57,840 doses of Covishield and 2,17,490 doses of Covaxin to Tamil Nadu, the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine has asked its deputy directors of health services to use these doses for special campaigns to vaccinate beneficiaries due for their second dose, and for teachers in government, aided and private schools and their family members who have not received their first/second dose.
In a communication to deputy directors of health services (DDHS) and the city medical officer of the Greater Chennai Corporation, T.S. Selvavinayagam, the Director of Public Health said all chief educational officers (CEO) were requested to instruct all teaching and non-teaching staff working in government, aided and private schools and Kendriya Vidyalayas to get inoculated, along with their family members, on or before September 5.
The CEO/district educational officers/block educational officers should identify the list of schools in each block/urban area where unvaccinated teaching and non-teaching staff, along with their families, should be mobilised to get the first and second doses as per the Centre’s guidelines.
All DDHS have been instructed to plan for utilising mobile medical teams/Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram teams for conducting the special vaccination campaigns in the identified schools on or before September 5 and to ensure the entry of their details on the Co-WIN portal.
The director said the Commissioner of School Education had instructed CEOs to ensure that those immunised get their vaccination certificates, as proof for the inoculation status, to identify the unvaccinated cohort.
