CHENNAI: From only 2,783 recipients on the inaugural day of January 16, the Covid-19 vaccination drive in the State has picked up as the number has increased five times to 10,256 on January 18. January 19 too witnessed good response to the drive as 9,446 people took the jab on the day. With a daily vaccination capacity of 17,700 beneficiaries, the State has managed to achieve 57 per cent of it.
Among the 9,446 vaccinated on Tuesday, 141 received Covaxin and 9,305 Covishield. Covishield was administered in 166 vaccination centres and Covaxin in six. Most of the districts were able to achieve more than 50 per cent of the daily target with Chennai vaccinating the highest of 801 people, of its 1,300 capacity. The number of people getting vaccinated is also 20 times higher than the number of fresh Covid cases. In Chennai, tertiary hospitals see a high number of beneficiaries compared to secondary health care centres such as Urban Community Health Centres.
Officials too said that health centres witness a lesser number of beneficiaries compared to hospitals due to lack of awareness. Health Secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan said that the vaccination drive is not a target-oriented program but a demand-driven one, even among the prioritised groups. “The capacity of the vaccination session sites is sometimes confused as target vaccination. The vaccination sites can also be increased or decreased, and moved depending on the number and demand in consultation with the Union government,” Radhakrishnan told Express.
Presently, the State has 160 session sites with 679 sessions held for four days now. A total of 25,908 people have been vaccinated as of January 18. Among these, Chennai has the most number of session sites, 12, which include four tertiary government hospitals and other health care centres, including private hospitals. Now, a few more private hospitals such as SIMS Hospital and Kauvery Hospital have begun vaccination. Radhakrishnan said that the picking up of numbers is encouraging as more and more people among health workers are now willingly coming forward to get vaccinated.
“Apart from communicating and clarifying the doubts, the opinion leaders among the doctors and various associations have helped as well,” he said. He said that the State will take the vaccination drive day by day and simultaneously focus on regular prevention and control works too. After several top doctors and administrators got themselves vaccinated early on to build confidence about the safety of Covid-19 vaccines, the number of beneficiaries in Coimbatore has been witnessing nearly a two-fold rise everyday since Sunday.
As many as 889 beneficiaries were inoculated at four locations in Coimbatore district on Tuesday, as against 477 on Monday. On the inaugural day, 72 people took the vaccine, followed by 245 on January 17.
ESI Hospital Dean A Nirmala was among those vaccinated on Tuesday. Only Covishield is being administered in the western region
543 fresh cases, 9 deaths on Tuesday
(With inputs from Coimbatore)