Coimbatore: On Day 1 of vaccination of frontline workers against Covid-19, the number of police and local body staff who turned up for the jab were relatively low in the district on Wednesday.
Despite vaccination being administered in 22 government centres, only 704 people from the government sector took the jab, according to data released by the health department. They included healthcare and frontline workers. However, the department refused to give the break-up of healthcare and frontline workers who took the jab on the day. As many as 551 took the jab at private hospitals, taking the total number of people vaccinated to 1,255.
“CoWin app is down again. Hence, we are not able to give the break-up of government and frontline workers who were vaccinated,” deputy director of public health Dr G Ramesh Kumar said. “We saw some police, panchayat officers and corporation staff taking the shot,” he said.
However, the absence of top cops and officials to take the vaccine was conspicuous. Meanwhile, two second year nursing students from Coimbatore Medical College Hospital who took the vaccine in the hospital on Wednesday afternoon experienced dizziness and mild breathing trouble. Doctors, who immediately gave them oxygen and took blood tests, said their reaction was not vaccine-related. They said the students were both anemic and had a panic reaction, but the blood tests and vitals were perfectly normal. Health officials had not recorded it as an adverse reaction.
Speaking to TOI, CMCH dean-in-charge Dr P Kalidas admitted that two nursing students who took the shot at 2.45 pm began feeling faint and complained of mild breathing difficulty while being observed. “We immediately gave them oxygen and began stabilizing them. Once they stabilized, which was in a few minutes, we checked their vitals and blood, and found everything was normal except that they were anemic,” he said. “The fainting and breathing trouble were due to a panic attack they seemed to have. However, we are starting anemia treatment on Thursday. Both the students are fine and stable,” he added.