Chennai, Oct 19 (IANS): After the resounding success of the five mega vaccination camps against Covid-19, Tamil Nadu is gearing up for the sixth camp. However, instead of the customary Sunday camps -- all five mega vaccination camps were held on Sundays, the sixth camp will be held on Saturday, October 23.

The state health department is preparing to make it the biggest vaccination camp spread across 50,000 centres.

Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian told IANS, "Many people are of the belief that they will not be able to eat or drink what they like and to encourage this group we are conducting the vaccination camp on Saturday."

Subramanian appealed to the people to take the vaccine as the state has adequate doses. He said 30 lakh people will be taking the second dose of the vaccine on Monday, adding that with the vaccines available in sufficient numbers, people must take the jab at the earliest.

At least one in four people across the state has taken both doses of the vaccine, the Minister added.

The state has already vaccinated more than 5.1 crore people with at least one dose of the vaccine but the vaccination is not evenly done.

The health department in a statement said only 45 per cent of those above 60 years have taken a single dose of the vaccine and the department is conducting awareness programmes among this section of the population to inoculate themselves as early as possible.

People above 60 years are more vulnerable to Covid-19 and hence the low percentage of inoculation in this community is a matter of worry.

Suchitra V. Menon, virologist at a private hospital in Chennai who is closely monitoring the vaccination in the state, told IANS, "The vaccination drive should focus more on those above 60 years as they are the most vulnerable to hospitalisation and contracting the infection. There has to be an attempt to accelerate the vaccination among those above 60 years."

According to a statement of the health department, 61 per cent people in the 18-44 age group have taken at least one dose of the vaccine and 74 per cent people in the 45-59 age group but only 45 per cent of the people above 60 years which is a cause of concern for the department.

Geographically, the vaccination is not uniform with Chennai, Kancheepuram, Nilgiris and Coimbatore vaccinating more people while there are districts where the vaccination is less than 20 per cent.