Tamil Nadu has the capacity to administer more than two crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines a month but supply-side constraints prevent it from vaccinating people faster, Medical and Family Welfare Minister Ma. Subramanian said in Chennai on Wednesday.
Addressing participants at the inauguration of a mass vaccination camp organised by Apollo Hospitals, he said the State, with its infrastructure, could vaccinate seven lakh to eight lakh people a day.
Faster utilisation
Mr. Subramanian pointed out that while the Government of India had planned to allocate 42 lakh doses to Tamil Nadu for June, it ended up allocating nearly 50 lakh doses because of the faster rate of utilisation. The State was expected to receive 71 lakh doses in July, starting from July 2.
He said the State had already administered more than 4 lakh doses a day on at least two days in June. Highlighting the State’s initiatives to create awareness among people of the need for vaccination, he said the Chief Minister himself took part at the inauguration of at least three inoculation drives. “People are showing interest in vaccination now, but we are not getting the supplies to meet the demand,” he said.
Pointing out that the vaccines allocated to the private sector remained generally under-utilised, the Minister, however, lauded Apollo Hospitals for its initiatives to be an exception by vaccinating more people through such mass campaigns. “The infrastructure arranged for this camp is very good with separate cabins and other facilities,” he said.
Preetha Reddy, vice-chairperson, Apollo Hospitals, said the hospital had already vaccinated around two lakh people in Chennai, and it was targeting to vaccinate at least 50,000 people in the city on Wednesday alone through the special drive.
She said the hospital was planning to focus next on Tier-II and Tier-III cities and the remote parts where hesitancy was high and supply was low. She expressed the hospital’s commitment to cooperate with the government in getting more people vaccinated. Terming Wednesday’s drive the largest such initiative by the private sector, she said the camp was happening nationally across 200 centres in 50 cities with the deployment of around 10,000 personnel.
Recalling Ms. Reddy’s offer of cooperation, Mr. Subramanian appealed to the hospital to make available its infrastructure and personnel free of cost for the government’s outreach vaccination drives to help cover more people.