Tamil Nadu has received the second tranche of 5,08,500 doses of Covishield vaccine, Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar said on Wednesday.
Earlier, the State had received 5,36,500 doses of Covishield that was followed by 20,000 doses of Covaxin -- a total of 5,56,500 vaccines.
“Today [Wednesday], we received an additional 5,08,500 doses of Covishield from the Union Health Ministry. It was brought from the Chennai airport and has been stored at the State Vaccine Store of the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine,” he told reporters after inspecting the store along with T. S. Selvavinayagam, Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine.
With this, the State has received a total of 10,65,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines. “Taking the two doses into account, we can immunise [around] 5,32,000 individuals [two doses each]. We have already identified and pre-registered six lakh healthcare workers. Till Tuesday, 25,908 persons including doctors, nurses, paramedical personnel and frontline workers of the Health Department were administered the vaccines,” he said.
He added that they have received applications from private hospitals seeking to become vaccine centres, and were providing the same.
Minister to get vaccinated on Friday
When asked whether there was hesitancy among healthcare professionals, he said that initially, there was slight hesitancy, but this was overcome. The president of the Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association, general secretary of Tamil Nadu Government Nurses Association, State president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and president of the National IMA have all been administered with the vaccine.
“I will be getting the vaccine on Friday at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital not as a Minister but as a doctor and member of the IMA to create confidence in our doctors, nurses and healthcare staff. I am ready to take any one of the two vaccines,” he said.
