CHENNAI: For the third day in a row, several vaccine centres across the state, including Chennai, were closed and special outreach camps were stalled, as the state did not have adequate vaccines. On Wednesday, the state vaccinated 66,214 people.
After vaccinating more than 16 lakh people during the mega camp on Sunday, the state did not hold any camp on Monday due to a shortage of vaccines. On Tuesday, it vaccinated 44,559 people. Between Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon, Tamil Nadu received about 4 lakh doses of Covishield and 1 lakh dose of Covaxin.
“Many centres did not have vaccines on Wednesday because they are still in transit,” said director of public health Dr TS Selva Vinayagam. The average vaccinations a day was around 2.9lakh a day in August and 2.1 lakh in July. “We are holding mega camps every week to increase coverage. The two mega camps have pushed our daily average to more than 5 lakh vaccines a day,” he said.
Until Tuesday, nearly 56% of the 6 crore adults have received one dose of the vaccine and 17% have received two doses. While more than 75% of people in Coimbatore and Kancheepuram have taken one dose , 73% of people in Nilgiris and 70% in Tiruppur have taken one dose. In Chennai, 67% of people have taken at least one dose.
However, in several districts, less than half the populace has got first dose. “We plan to continue mega camps without compromising on daily vaccinations. For this we have asked the Centre to increase our dosage to 50 lakh a week,” he said.
The state is expecting at least 50,000 doses of Covaxin and 2 lakh doses of Covishield by 7.15 am. The centre has promised to send another batch of 5.45 lakh doses of the vaccine by noon, he said.
