Lt. Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan volunteered for vaccination at the Rajiv Gandhi Women and Children’s Hospital on Friday to launch an exclusive vaccination centre for women at the hospital and provide a fillip to the vaccination programme among women beneficiaries.
The exclusive vaccination centre for women would function from Mondays to Saturdays between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Expressing satisfaction at taking the indigenously-developed vaccine, the Lt. Governor said she would “therefore rather say that she has injected into herself the pride of India, rather than taken vaccination”. She is due for the second and final dose of Covishield after 28 days.
Ms. Soundararajan urged women, who are aged 45 years and above, to come forward and get themselves vaccinated at the centre.
The status of COVID-19 spread and the progress of vaccination was being reviewed every week by a high-power committee under her chairmanship. The aim was to ensure that the Union Territory was fully equipped with all infrastructure, such as vaccines, oxygen beds, and ventilators.
The Lt. Governor also urged the public to follow safety measures by compulsorily wearing masks and following COVID-19 appropriate behaviour.
Advisers to the Lt. Governor, C. Chandramouli and A.P. Maheshwari; T. Arun, Health Secretary; S. Mohan Kumar, Director of Health; and Sujatha, Medical Superintendent of the Institute; and others were present.
Meanwhile, the Union Territory recorded one death and 213 new cases in the last 24 hours.
With the death of a 60-year-old woman at the GH in Karaikal, the toll in the enclave rose to 76. The toll in Puducherry stands at 552, Yanam 45 and Mahe 11.
Puducherry accounted for 143 of the new cases, followed by Karaikal (53), Yanam (11) and Mahe (four). The test positivity rate was 8.2%, case fatality rate 1.63% and recovery rate 94.98%. With 82 patients discharged in the last 24 hours, the active cases in the Union Territory stood at 1,420. Of these, 334 were in hospitals and 1,086 in home isolation.
In Puducherry, the number of in-patients at IGMCRI was 182 and 82 in JIPMER.
Of an estimated 6.76 lakh tests carried out so far, over 6.24 lakh were negative.
Meanwhile, 225 healthcare workers, 324 frontline staff and 1,616 members of the public took their first shot of COVID vaccine across the Union Territory.
The total number of persons immunised aggregated to 74,320 — 27,461 healthcare workers, 13,676 frontline staff and 33,183 members of the public.