Chennai, Jan 12 (UNI) A total of 5.36 lakh doses of Covishield and 20,000 doses of Covaxin vaccines arrived in Tamil Nadu by aircraft on Tuesday from Pune for launching the vaccination drive on January 16 by Chief Minister Edappadi K.Palaniswami.

Health Secretary J.Radhakrishnan said here that the public health authorities will dispatch these vaccines directly to the State warehouse from where it will be sent to the ten regional warehouses and then distributed to districts and the vaccination centres. We have the route plan, transport and cold chain, he added.

He said the Centre has announced that the first round of inoculation using these two vaccines approved for emergency use in the country will begin on January 16. Over 40,000 centres have been identified for administering COVID vaccines across the State.

In the first phase, the vaccines will be administered to about six lakh health workers, including the doctors, nurses, paramedics, sanitary workers at hospitals and other healthcare providers on a voluntary basis. In the second phase, other frontline personnel like those from the Police and Revenue departments and local bodies, would be administered the vaccine, while in the third phase, those above 50 years of age would be given the vaccine. Two doses of vaccines will be inoculated in a gap of 28 days, he added.

When asked about human resources, Mr.Radhakrishnan said the government would manage with the existing personnel and the Centre has assured that both vaccines were efficient and safe to use, he said.

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