TN: Vax stocks running out; waiting for Centre’s supply

CHENNAI/ TIRUCHY: Inoculation of vaccines is likely to get hampered for a few days as the stock available are likely to empty in two days. With only 4.93 lakh doses remaining, which is likely to run out of stock by Tuesday, State Health Minister Ma Subramanian urged the Centre to allocate more vaccines.

Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan said that the stock in Tamil Nadu will last for only about two days.

“We received only 1.68 lakh doses of vaccine out of the 20.43 lakh doses we were promised. Currently, we have 4.93 lakh doses and 1.74 lakh doses are yet to be received. Due to this, many vaccination sites are likely to run out of doses in the coming days,” he added. He said that Tamil Nadu is likely to receive 42.58 lakh doses of vaccines in June, with the first allotment coming by June 6. Of the total allocation, about 34.99 lakh doses of Covishield and 9.27 lakh doses of Covaxin are expected, out of which 16.74 lakh doses will be used for the age group of 18-44 years. On Monday, several vaccination camps by n scheduled for Tuesday were postponed for next week due to shortage in supply.

Similarly, camps for people in the age group between 18 and 44 years were suspended in Tiruchy and Thanjavur on Monday. According to officials, ever since the vaccination for this category commenced, there has been a huge turnout of people, who came forward across the region. However, for the past six days, only 56, 164 in the 18-44 years’ age group got vaccinated.