The COVID-19 vaccines will be administered at 166 centres across the State from Saturday, Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar said here on Friday.
Elaborate measures have been put in place as per the Centre’s guidelines for administration of the vaccines as scheduled, Mr. Vijayabaskar told reporters here, after inspecting the arrangements made at the Pudukottai Government Medical College Hospital. Prime Minister Narendra Modi would inaugurate the nation-wide exercise on Saturday morning and Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami would be in Madurai for the launch, he said.
Mr. Vijayabaskar said many doctors had expressed their willingness to get themselves vaccinated. Frontline workers have been enumerated and based on their willingness, the vaccines would be administered. He said 10 leading doctors of the State had volunteered to get themselves vaccinated for which approval from the Centre had been obtained to infuse confidence among the public about the vaccine and to dispel rumours.
Initially, the vaccines would be administered to healthcare workers as per guidelines and 6 lakh of them had been identified in the first phase. Frontline workers from other departments such as the police would be identified and vaccinated in a phased manner, he said.
The Minister said auto disable syringes had been exclusively manufactured for administering the vaccine and the syringes could be used only once. Adequate syringes have been made available across the country.
Replying to a query, Mr. Vijayabaskar said frontline workers who had tested COVID-19 positive earlier and later turned negative following treatment could also get vaccinated.
A bilingual manual in English and Tamil containing information on who could get vaccinated and who cannot would be released to address the doubts of the general public. To another query, the Minister said he was ready to get vaccinated -- but approval was yet to come.