Priority for low coverage dists in weekly vaccination camps

The Health Department officials say that districts with low coverage will be prioritised. “We are looking at increasing the coverage in the districts that have less number of people vaccinated and had low sero positivity as revealed in the survey. The weekly vaccination camps will help to achieve the same.

There is no hesitancy among people as earlier and more number of people are turning up at the vaccination sites, “said Dr Vinay Kumar, Immunisation Officer, Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. Earlier, Health Minister Ma Subramanian said that the state health department aims at vaccinating people in the districts with low vaccine coverage and districts bordering Kerala as they are at a higher risk of infection from the neighbouring state.

After more number of vaccines arrived in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday, the regular vaccination camps are expected to resume from Wednesday. On Tuesday, the Health Minister said that Tamil Nadu needs 12.12 crore vaccines as 6.06 crore people over the age of 18 have been identified as eligible for vaccination.

“The number of people who have been vaccinated so far is 4.37 crore and 7.5 crore doses of vaccines are required to vaccinate the total eligible population. As other countries are vaccinating children between 12-18 years of age, we should consider it in India as well. I had requested the Union Health Minister to allow vaccination of 17-year-old college going students but the response is awaited, “said Subramanian.

He added that export vaccines from India to other countries is not recommended as only one-third of India is vaccinated so far. India still needs 115 crore vaccines to vaccinate total eligible population. He urged the Prime Minister and Union Health Ministry to aim for full vaccination of the Indian population before undertaking export of the vaccines.