Chennai Corporation to conduct ‘massive vaccination drive’ for next three days

CHENNAI: The Greater Chennai Corporation will conduct a “massive vaccination drive” in the next three days to cover the maximum number of people aged above 45 years. (The Tamil Nadu government hasn’t opened vaccination for people aged between 18 and 45 years.)
“Vaccination will be done at apartments, market areas and companies. At a marriage hall, traders and associations will be called and they will be administered the vaccine,” said a zonal health officer.
The civic body has stock of 1.16 lakh Covishield doses and 16,000 Covaxin doses. The corporation will keep about 20% as reserve for second doses and administer the rest in the next three days starting Friday.
“We want to finish the stocks we have and vaccinate maximum number of people in a short time to cut the rate of transmission. What is the use of the vaccines if we do not use them,” Greater Chennai Corporation commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi said.
All zonal medical officers and zonal health officers were called for a meeting on Thursday to review the coverage of vaccines in various zones. Many zones in the north region such as Tondiarpet and Thiru Vi Ka Nagar had lesser coverage while those in South such as Adyar and Central region’s Anna Nagar had better coverage up to 80%.
“Due to increase in Covid-19 cases, the focus on vaccination had reduced. So, to ensure per day about 35000-40000 are vaccinated every day, we will vaccinate them all,” Bedi said.
He added that the corporation would get more doses next week from the central government India and the state is also planning to purchase more vaccines.
The civic body that began its vaccination drive in February has vaccinated about 16.38 people. The population of the city is approximately 80 lakh, and at least 22 lakh are above the age of 45 years.