A day after the Tamil Nadu Medical Department announced that vaccination would be suspended until fresh supplies arrive, the Centre on Tuesday dispatched 4,20,570 doses of Covishield and 75,000 doses of Covaxin for vaccinating people aged 45 and above.
Earlier, the State was facing the risk of running out of vaccines in two days. With supplies from the Central government scheduled to reach the State only after June 6, Minister for Medical and Family Welfare Ma. Subramanian and Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan had stated that vaccination would have to be suspended till a fresh lot was supplied.
However, the State received a total of 4,95,570 doses of vaccines for those aged 45 and above, taking the stock in-hand to 6.50 lakh, Mr. Subramanian said. With this, the total number of vaccine doses supplied to the State reached 1.01 crore. So far, nearly 90.50 lakh doses had been administered, he added.
The vaccines supplied would be dispatched to all districts by Tuesday night, he said, adding, “From tomorrow [Wednesday], 1.5 lakh to two lakh doses will be administered per day...Details of the district-wise distribution of vaccines will be published on the website of the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine.”
While vaccines were being distributed on the basis of the population of each district, with Chennai receiving the highest number of doses, followed by Coimbatore, the Chief Minister advised that priority be given to the western region, which accounted for a slightly higher number of fresh cases. Accordingly, additional doses would be given to districts like Coimbatore, Erode and Tiruppur, the Minister said.
“The current stock is adequate for three to four days. The Centre has allocated 42 lakh doses for this month, and will start supplying them gradually,” Mr. Subramanian said.
On Tuesday, 98,183 people were vaccinated across the State, including 47,567 in the 18-44 age group. The coverage crossed 90 lakh.