10L families to get immunity booster packs

Coimbatore: The district administration on Tuesday unveiled the plans to distribute immunity booster packs to 10 lakh families in the district over the next few weeks. Each pack would have a small bottle of arsenic album, 40 each tablets of zinc and multi vitamin, and a pack of kabasura kudineer powder.
With one pack, a source said, a family of four could have arsenic album for three days and the other three medicines for 10 days.
Speaking to the media, health minister Dr C Vijayabaskar said the district administration was working under the guidance of local administration minister S P Velumani to implement the project, which would be bigger than what was being pursued in other tier II cities in the state.
Samathurai Murugan, district revenue officer, said, “We need a large quantity of medicines that too from various branches such as siddha, homeopathy and allopathy. We are working on procuring the medicines, which come in batches.”
The officer said they had already procured more than one lakh units of arsenic album and kabasura kudineer powder packets. “We are, however, yet to get enough units of vitamin and zinc tablets. Once all the medicines arrive, we will start distributing them in two days.”
Another officer said all the medicines were being procured from private suppliers after floating tenders.
The distribution of immunity booster packs would be handled by the respective local bodies, including village and town panchayats. “Our earlier population data shows the district has a population of 33 lakh. But we are buying medicines for 40 lakh people. We assume that each of the 10 lakh families will have at least four members. The immunity booster packs will be distributed at their doorsteps,” the district revenue officer said.
The immunity booster packs are already being given to the families in containment zones across the state. The project is much larger in Coimbatore, compared to other tier II cities. In Madurai, the project was launched in June for just 1.5 lakh people, while in Trichy it is limited to containment zones, vulnerable people near them and those attending fever camps.