Vanathi seeks committee to assess pandemic works in TN

BJP MLA from Coimbatore and the party’s All India Mahila Morcha president Vanathi Srinivasan on Tuesday urged Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan to constitute a high level committee to assess and assist Tamil Nadu government to handle the COVID-19 crisis effectively.

“A high level committee of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare should be constituted and designated to Tamil Nadu to assess and assist the state government in resource allocation and to handle the crisis effectively,” the BJP leader said in a letter to the Union Minister on Tuesday.

Coimbatore is facing an unprecedented increase in the number of positive cases during this second wave of the pandemic. “With the COVID-19 cases surging past 4,000, it has put a huge strain on the health care sector involved in combating the pandemic. Being an industrial hub and with more than 70 per cent of people testing positive were from the industrial sector, there is an immediate need to ramp up vaccination in Coimbatore. Also the rising number of cases has seriously hit the economic activity of the region and many families have lost their sole breadwinner,” she said.

Pointing out that Coimbatore is facing an acute shortage of vaccine and those in the most vulnerable age group of 45 and above are unable to get inoculated.

“More vaccines should be released to Tamil Nadu, earmarking a portion of the vaccines specifically for Coimbatore to vaccinate these vulnerable populations and industrial workers to combat the pandemic,” Vanathi added.