Chennai, Jun 30 (IANS): With Tamil Nadu having only 50,000 doses left on Wednesday, the vaccination drive was slowed down and several centres were shut.

The state administered the remaining doses tp frontline workers and those who are on the priority list, and the drive will commence from Thursday after fresh stocks arrive.

The state is expecting a replenishment of vaccine doses by Wednesday evening or latest by Thursday morning.

The state immunisation wing had already asked the Union government on Tuesday evening to dispatch the next batch of vaccines ahead of schedule.

Officials told IANS that the next batch of 72 lakh doses of vaccine which were scheduled to reach the state on July 6 will arrive on July 2. However, officials are expecting vaccines by Wednesday evening itself and it would take a day to deliver these vaccines across all the districts.

A senior officer with the Tamil Nadu Immunisation Department told IANS that even delivery of vaccines by air to various districts is under consideration.

State immunisation officer, Dr. K. Vinayakumar, said: "The state received 48 lakh doses and we were able to vaccinate 57.17 lakh people from this as in many districts, nurses are able to deliver 12 doses from a vial as the vaccine companies usually fill 1 ml extra in each vial or two extra doses which the nurses have been able to extract and inject people."

Average vaccinations per day have increased from 90,000 in May to 1.9 lakh people in June.