Chennai, Oct 5 (IANS): Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Tuesday said that the fifth mega vaccination drive against Covid-19 will be held on October 10, and a target of 15 lakh vaccinations has been set.

Speaking to reporters here, he underlined that the previous mega vaccination camps have been a major success and that in the first three, there was higher participation then expected.

In the first camp on September 12, the target was 20 lakh but 28.91 lakh people were inoculated. The state government had 40,000 centres for administering the jab and this led to 10 per cent of people of the state getting vaccinated.

In the second on September 19, the targeted population was 15 lakh but the state vaccinated 16,43,879.

Subramanian said that his department was relentlessly pursuing the demand for more vaccines with the Central government and Chief Minister M.K.Stalin wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sanction 50 lakh vaccines per week as the state has the capacity to inoculate 6 lakh people a day.

The third mega vaccination drive was held on September 26 and 24.85 lakh people got the jabs, against the projected 15 lakh. Of these, 14.90 lakh got the first shot while 9.95 lakh were administered the second dose.

In the fourth mega vaccine drive held on October 3, vaccines were administered to 17.19 lakh people in 24,882 camps.

The state, according to Health Department officials, is to receive 1.23 crore vaccine doses as the October allocation, and expects to administer at least one dose to all by the year end.

"The state has administered vaccines according to the plan we have chalked out and we are getting a regular supply of vaccines from the Centre following the Chief Minister directly writing to the Prime Minister regarding the state's requirements," Subramanian told IANS.