CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu, on Thursday, received 3.89 lakh doses of Corbevax for vaccinating children in the age group of 12 to 18 years. The Union Health Ministry has allotted 21.66 lakh doses of Corbevax for Tamil Nadu, said Health Minister Ma Subramanian.
Speaking to reporters from the DMS campus, the health minister said, there were over 10 lakh children in the age group of 12 to 15 years in Tamil Nadu. Adolescents from 15 to 18 years are already being vaccinated with Covaxin in the State. The inoculation drive for 12-15 years will be launched once the Union Health Ministry announces the dates.
Produced by Biological E, Corbevax is the third vaccine to be granted emergency use approval for children after Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D. The health minister said the interval between the first and second doses should be 28 days. The vaccination drive will be conducted in schools.
As much as 82.27 per cent of the children in the 15-18 age group have been given the first dose and 37.64 per cent, the second. The coverage above 18 years is at 91.39 per cent and 72.05 per cent for the first and second doses respectively, Subramanian added.
Meanwhile, the Intensified Pulse Polio campaign will be held on February 27. A total of 57.61 lakh children from zero to five years are eligible for the polio drops. Over two lakh government staff will be engaged in the task and 43,501 camps will be conducted in the State. Tamil Nadu has been polio-free for the last 18 years, Subramanian said.
The health minister further said there will be no Covid mega vaccination camp on Saturday (February 26) due to pulse polio camp.
Exchange vaccine with short shelf life
The Directorate of Public Health (DPH), on Thursday, instructed all the deputy directors of health services and city medical officers to exchange Covid vaccines with a shorter expiry period from private centres with vaccines that have longer shelf life available at the government centres if the private centres make the request.
In a letter to the officers concerned, the DPH said the exchange has to be done after ensuring that the vaccines were maintained as per the temperature norms prescribed by the Centre. They were also told to ensure that the vaccines had shelf life for at least one more month and depute cold chain technicians to private centres to inspect the functioning of cold chain equipment.
Covid-19 cases