CHENNAI: Chennai corporation' urban community health centres and primary health centres offering the Covid vaccine said that only Covaxin was available as of Thursday. Earlier, the healthcare centres had been administering Covishield.
A UCHC staff in Perungudi said that Covishield was low on stock and they had reserved the available doses for those who would return for their second doses.
"Until yesterday, we were administering Covishield. It is only today that we have switched to Covaxin," the staff said.
Similarly, primary healthcare centres including those in Mandaveli and Kilpauk also said that only Covaxin was currently available.
While some took time to make an informed decision since they had come to get Covishield specifically, a few others said that they were open to either.
"My son, who works in Telangana did the research for me and sent me the address to go get the vaccine. I'm okay with any of the two vaccines," said Arumugam (name changed) waiting to register at a vaccination centre in Perungudi.
Senior corporation officials said that they have sufficient stock of both the vaccines for the time being.
"Since the (vaccination) programme is a good success in Chennai, vaccine stock is mobilised from other districts to Chennai," said a senior official.
"The availability of Covaxin vis a vis Covidshield could be specific to Primary Healthcare Centres. We will address it," the official added.
The city corporation is vaccinating around 25,000 people on a daily basis at present and aims to reach 50,000 a day by the end of March.
Chennai Corporation Commissioner G Prakash, who met reporters, on Thursday, appealed to city residents over the age of 60 and those above 45 with comorbidities, to take the vaccine in a PHC nearest to them.
"There is a second wave throughout the country. In Chennai, as you can see there is an increase in cases and there may be a slight further increase in future too," he said.
However, so far only four lakh residents have taken the vaccine. "At least 40 lakh people should be vaccinated to be on the safe side. For that it will take 2-3 months," Prakash said, adding that there were 20 lakh people over the age of 45.
Speaking on containment measures, the commissioner said that out of the 39,000 streets in the city, containment activities have been initiated in 158. The movement will be restricted in streets that have three and above Covid 19 cases to alert neighbouring people.
Further, in the 20 wards which report a higher number of cases, a host of measures including priority vaccination and disinfection are undertaken.
As far as zones were concerned, Ambattur, Anna Nagar, Teynampet, Adyar, and Kodambakkam zones report high-intensity cases, he said, adding that at present there were no Covid 19 cases in slums and tenements.