CHENNAI: The drop in the number of vaccine recipients will leave
Tamil Nadu with fewer vaccines from the Centre in the next allotment, health secretary J Radhakrishnan said.
A day after vaccinating 15,168 people, the state on Monday gave shots to 57,726 people including 24,213 senior citizens and 30,252 above 45 years.
The state, which has so far got nearly 54 lakh doses of both
Covishield and Covaxin, has over the last one week seen a drop in the number of people vaccinated daily.
On March 29, 1.19 lakh people took the vaccine. This dropped to 79,320 on March 31. On April 1, 60,726 people took the vaccine, and the following day 65,793 had it.
"On Sunday, we had only 15,000 coming for vaccination even as healthcare providers were waiting at more than 400 centres," he said.
The state's supply from the Centre depends on the three-day average utilisation of the vaccine.
"Lower utilisation will lead to lower allocation. So, states which use more vaccines will get more stock," he said, urging everyone above 45 to take the vaccine.
Health units in Aranthangi, Ariyalur, Cheyyar, Kovilpatti, Paramakudi, Perambalur and Ramanathapuram had less than 20,000 people who had taken the first dose. States with higher utilisation such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are getting more vaccines.
To ensure availability and judicious use of vaccines district health authorities have been told to ensure availability of Covishield in all centres according to daily performance or a three-day average.
Covaxin doses will be made available at all
medical college hospitals, upgraded PHCs, upgraded community health centres performing more than 50 Covaxin vaccinations per day and in private hospitals and medical colleges offering more than 100 Covaxin vaccinations a day.
From April 7, the
state health department will take up vaccination on a campaign mode to encourage eligible people to get vaccinated.
"We have not seen serious adverse events after vaccination. While there are some chances of people getting infected, they are unlikely to get severe symptoms. It is said the vaccine gets up to 85% efficacy 14 days after the second dose," he said.
So far, 4.3 lakh doses of Covaxin and 28.80 lakh doses of Covishield were utilised, he said. The State has till now received 7.8 lakh doses of Covaxin and 47.43 lakh doses of Covishield. In the last 71 days, 33.14lakh people have received the vaccine.