The vaccination drive for 18-44 age group began in Salem, Namakkal, Erode and Dharmapuri districts on Monday. In first phase, the vaccine will be administered to persons in priority groups identified by the State government.
Chief Minister M.K. Stalin launched the vaccination for 18-44 age group at Tiruppur recently. However, the drive did not begin in other places due to lack of guidelines. The Health Department here launched the drive on Monday after the State government provided direction as to who should receive the vaccine in priority and the centres for administration of vaccines.
Minister for Electricity V.Senthil Balaji inaugurated a camp at a primary health centre near Kanankuruchi here.
According to government officials, vulnerable workers like newspaper boys, milk vendors, distributors, street vendors, pharmacy staff, grocery store staff, auto, bus and taxi drivers, Electricity Board staff, local body employees, e-commerce workers, mediapersons, school and college teachers, State transport employees, volunteers providing food to COVID-19 patients and those providing help in hospitals, differently-abled persons, employees of Airport and seafarers working in shipping industries are eligible.
S.Subramani, Deputy Director of Health Services, said the district received 42,800 Covishield and 6,400 Covaxin doses for the priority group. Health officials said they were also planning to conduct special camps for administering vaccine. In Namakkal, the vaccination was done at 74 centres for the priority categories.
In Erode, S. Muthusamy, Minister for Housing and Rural Development, inaugurated the camp to vaccinate people in the 18-44 age group. The Minister along with Collector C. Kathiravan inspected the work in progress to establish additional beds at the Government Erode Medical College Hospital (GEMCH) at Perundurai
He said a total of 1,65,422 persons were vaccinated in the district as of Monday. As many as 6,37,679 persons had undergone RT-PCR tests and 7,091 persons were in home isolation, while 135 containment areas were earmarked in the district.
Members of Olirum Erodu Foundation donated 30 oxygen concentrators worth ₹ 1.25 lakh each to the GEMCH.
In Dharmapuri, Collector S. Divyadarshini inaugurated the drive at the primary health centre (PHC) in Nallampalli. The camps for 18-44 age group are being organised at the government medical college hospital, government taluk hospitals in Pennagaram and Paapireddipatty and the PHCs in Hanumanthapuram, Morappur, Chinnankuppam, Payarnatham, Nagadasampatti, and at the town PHC in Nallampalli.