Tamil Nadu has received four lakh doses of vaccine, Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan said on Saturday.
Two lakh doses each of Covishield and Covaxin arrived on Friday and Saturday after the State flagged the shortage, he told journalists here after inspecting the Tamil Nadu Government Multi-Super-Speciality Hospital, a dedicated COVID-19 treatment facility.
Wastage comes down
In response to questions on vaccine shortage and wastage, Dr. Radhakrishnan said the State had received 55 lakh doses of Covishield and 10.82 lakh doses of Covaxin. Of these, it had so far used 51.32 lakh doses: 44.32 lakh doses of Covishield and 7.29 lakh doses of Covaxin.
In the past 20 days, he said, the wastage had fallen to 5%, and the government wanted to reduce it further to 3%.
He said 40% of the beds at government hospitals were vacant, and the government had tied up with private medical college hospitals in the Chennai suburbs, such as ACS Medical College and Hospital and Madha Medical College, to accommodate COVID-19 patients.
“The Chief Minister has given approval to add 2,400 oxygen beds at all medical college hospitals in Chennai. Oxygen beds at maternity hospitals, such as Government RSRM Hospital and the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, would also be made available,” he said.
There was no shortage of beds at COVID-19 Care Centres either, he said. Medical college hospitals had been told to put in abeyance elective surgeries. Doctors from mini-clinics had been asked to report for duty at the nearby COVID-19 hospitals in all districts.
The State had a method of segregating patients, based on their medical condition, Dr. Radhakrishnan said.
Of the 95,048 active cases on Friday, 48,289 people (50.8%) were being treated at home; 8,414 people (8.8%) were at COVID-19 Care Centres and 24,569 people (25.8%) were being treated at hospitals.
‘Go to care centres’
“These are sensitive cases. Yesterday [on Friday], 13,776 people who tested positive will come for admission today [on Saturday], when 8,000-9,000 people will be discharged,” the Health Secretary said, easing fears over the lack of beds.
He appealed to the people not to panic and instead go to COVID-19 Care Centres if they felt any need for treatment.
The Health Secretary said 1,645 doctors recruited for the mini-clinics and 363 doctors who were recruited by the Medical Recruitment Board on Friday would be deployed at hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients.
Allaying fears over the increasing cases, Dr. Radhakrishnan said the State accounted for around 3.9% of the active cases and 2.9% of COVID-19 deaths in the country.