Chennai, Sep 1 (IANS): The Union Health Ministry has allocated 1.4 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines to Tamil Nadu for the month of September. A communique for the union health ministry to the state health department said that the state would receive 1.4 crore doses of vaccine as against the 92 lakh doses it received in the month of August.
In August, while the allocation was 72 lakh doses, the state received an additional 20 lakh doses of vaccines after the state health minister personally intervened and approached the union health ministry.
Tamil Nadu health minister Ma Subramanian told IANS, "Yes, we will be receiving 1.4 crore doses of vaccines for the month of September. In August our allocation was 72 lakh doses and this is double that volume. However, in August, we received an additional 20 lakh doses as a special consideration. This allocation of 1.4 crore doses will help us to increase the inoculation."
The state is also expecting an additional 1 crore doses of vaccines from the central pool as the state health secretary, J. Radhakrishnan has already taken up the matter with the union health secretary. Tamil Nadu is trying to provide at least one dose of vaccine to the whole population of the state before the end of 2021.
In August the average vaccination per day was 2.7 lakh a day while it was 2.1 lakh in July and 1.9 lakh in June. The state is now aiming at 5 lakh vaccines per day and with the 1.4 crore lakh doses allocated for September and an additional 1 crore as a special quota the state is expected to accelerate the inoculation drive and to complete vaccinating the whole populace by the end of December 2021.
It is to be noted that Nilgiris has vaccinated 68 per cent of its population with at least one dose followed by Poonamalle at 50 per cent and Virudhanagar at (49 per cent). Tirunelveli and Tuticorin have vaccinated 29 per cent of the population.
The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) announced on Tuesday that it would increase its permanent vaccination centres to 200. The GCC is presently vaccinating 30,000 people per day at 45 centres.
The GCC would be using primary health centres, amma clinics and hospitals to increase the inoculation drive as it had the experience of vaccinating 1.25 lakh people a day from 400 centres including mobile vaccination camps and special drives.