Awaiting Centre’s permission for vaccine production: Stalin

Coimbatore: The Tamil Nadu government is not only taking all efforts to bring down Covid spread, but is also preparing to face the eventuality of a third wave, chief minister M K Stalin said here on Sunday.
“Experts say there could be a third wave. We should be prepared to face such an eventuality. Hence, we have urged the Centre to grant permission to commence vaccine production at the Integrated Vaccine Complex (IVC) in Chengalpet,” he said.
Accompanied by health minister Ma Subramanian, Stalin, who inspected Covid treatment facilities in Erode, Tirupur and Coimbatore, told reporters they are awaiting response from the Centre on operationalising IVC set up by HLL BioTech, a central PSU.
Reiterating his request to grant permission for vaccine production by TN government at the IVC, Stalin said that they have urged the Centre either to commence vaccine production or handover it to the state government. “The Centre said they will respond in a week.”
Stalin visited a Covid ward at ESI Hospital donning a PPE suit and interacted with patients earlier in the day. The government is handling the Covid crisis in an efficient manner and has kept the daily cases at a maximum of 36,000 compared to Karnataka, which peaked with 50,000 cases and Kerala with 44,000 cases, he said.
TN has the highest number of oxygen-equipped beds and the vaccination pace is also the highest, Stalin said. “Because of the tight lockdown, Covid cases have come down. Particularly in Chennai, there is a significant drop while in few more districts, it’s coming down gradually.”
Noting that Coimbatore overtook Chennai in new daily cases, Stalin said that because of the government’s efforts, Covid numbers are coming down in Coimbatore also. He attributed interstate movement of people in Coimbatore, presence of numerous industries and a large number of guest workers for the high number of cases here.
Stalin strongly rejected the charges that Coimbatore is being given step-motherly treatment. “The highest number of vaccinations – 5.85 lakh - were done in Coimbatore, next to Chennai. This government will work for those who voted for us and those who didn’t,” he said adding that he had visited Coimbatore twice in the last 10 days and the health minister was camping here for the last two days. There are 4,009 oxygen beds in Coimbatore and more Covid care facilities are being created, he added.
Health minister Ma Subramanian who accompanied the CM said the state is running short of vaccines. “So far, we have received 96 lakh vaccine doses, of which 83 lakh were provided by the Centre meant for those above 45 years of age while 13 lakh doses were procured by TN for those in the 18 to 44 years age bracket. We administered 86 lakh doses so far. For those under 44 years, we sought 25 lakh vaccines and paid money. Of that, we received only 13 lakh,” he said. The state is left with only one-and-a-half lakh doses meant for those above 45 years, the minister said. “As and when the Centre sends stocks, we will distribute to all districts.”