CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu vaccinated 9,446 health workers, 9,305 with Covishield and 141 with Covaxin, till 7pm on Tuesday, while recording 543 fresh cases and nine deaths. The Covid-19 case tally went up to 8,31,866 and death toll to 12,281. Active cases stood at 5,487.
In the past four days, 25,908 healthcare providers received the vaccine in Tamil Nadu.
“More people are coming forward to get themselves vaccinated. While we are not in a race to reach the target, we are confident we will be able to cover most healthcare providers before the deadline. We are also increasing vaccination centres so people can close to centres near home,” said health secretary J Radhakrishnan. He inaugurated a vaccination centre at SIMS Hospitals, Vadapalani, on Tuesday. He said Covishield vaccine will be administered free of cost in the hospital for prioritised beneficiaries in phase-I.
Since glitches persisted with the Cowin portal, the public health department posted additional staff to update data even after office hours.
On Tuesday, at least seven districts overshot their targets for vaccination. For instance, Namakkal vaccinated 434 healthcare providers against the target of 300 in three sessions, and Kovilpatti vaccinated 140 against the target of 100 in one session. Over all, the state has covered 56% of the target for the day and 38% of the target over the last four days. Some districts continue to vaccinate less than a quarter of the people targeted. Tiruvarur, for instance, vaccinated 56 of the targeted 400 beneficiaries.
The six centres that were offering Covaxin targeted 600 vaccinations on Tuesday, but managed to inoculate 141 beneficiaries – Chennai (58), Trichy (40), Thanjavur (34), Pudukottai (6), Tirunelveli (3) and Chengalpet (0).
Meanwhile, barring Kallakurichi, all other districts in the state added cases to the Covid registry, and seven districts reported deaths. While Chennai recorded three deaths, Tiruvallur two, and Coimbatore, Erode, Kancheepuram and Villupuram one each.
Chennai had the most fresh cases, 152, followed by Coimbatore with 58. All other districts reported fewer than 50, with 21 recording a single-digit rise.