Puducherry Lt Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Sunday underscored the need for people getting inoculated against Covid 19 without any delay as vaccination was more efficacious and a powerful weapon to prevent the onslaught of the infection.

Addressing reporters here after receiving a consignment of ventilators from the Centre, she said a survey showed that 95 percent of patients admitted to the government hospital here were found to have not received the jab. "Failure to get vaccination is a serious failure on the part of the people and hence vaccination should be taken without hesitation and without fear," she said. The Centre had supplied so far 250 ventilators to Puducherry including the consignment received on Sunday. "I am thankful to the Union Health Ministry for its gesture, and this would help Puducherry government ramp up further the facilities in the hospitals," she said.

On the ongoing lockdown in Puducherry, she said the union territory was perhaps setting a model by adopting only a partial shutdown. "A total lockdown is avoided as it would tell upon the livelihood sources of the small vendors and daily wage earners in Puducherry.

Union Territory is thus probably showing the way to the rest of the country by avoiding total lockdown and adopting only one with select restrictions." Puducherry administration extended lockdown with restrictions till June 7 from midnight of May 31. All essential services are permitted to operate between 5 am to 12 noon every day and lockdown would be in force from 12 noon to 5 am the next day.

Soundararajan further noted that the oxygen facility was raised in hospitals in the union territory and the number of oxygen beds has also gone up to 1800. She felt that vaccination should be made a people's movement in Puducherry so that the union territory would emerge a totally Covid free segment in the country at the earliest.