CHENNAI: Just a week after the state suspended – and restarted – its vaccination drive against COVID-19, Tamil Nadu's health minister Ma Subramanian on Tuesday said that 34 of the state's 38 districts had run out of vaccine doses. Experts feared that the disruption in drive would affect the disease control in the state.
According to the minister, as of Tuesday afternoon the State had only 23,000-odd doses left, of which 16,000 were in Chennai and 4,000 in Coimbatore. Yet, Coimbatore, as well as Tiruchy and Madurai, have suspended the vaccine drive for a few days now due to less stock. By Tuesday evening, the State still managed to vaccinate 14,928 people.
According to the schedule sent by the Central government, Tamil Nadu is expected to received 63,370 doses of Covaxin for the 18-44 age group on Wednesday, 40,000 doses of Covaxin for 45 and above age group on Thursday and 3,65,800 doses of Covishield for the 18-44 age group on Friday.
An health department official said that supply would be dispatched to all districts once the doses arrive in Chennai. "We will restart the drive after the supply reaches the districts," the official said.
The Centre had released 4,20,570 doses of Covishield for Tamil Nadu on June 1, hours after the State announced it would suspend vaccination. It received 5 lakh doses of Covaxin on June 4 to vaccinate persons above the age of 45. The State's allocation for the month of June is 42 lakh doses, the minister said while speaking to reporters.
So far, Tamil Nadu has received 1.01 crore vaccine doses from the Centre, and vaccinated 97.5 lakh people. Subramanian said nearly 3.5 lakh doses – or about 3 percent – were wasted in the first phase of the vaccine drive.
Welcoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement that the Centre would provide States with vaccines free of cost to vaccinate the 18-44 age group as well, the minister urged the union government to allocate vaccine doses on the basis on State population and ensure timely supply.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, former Director of Public Health Dr K Kolandasamy expressed the concern that the disruption in the vaccination drive would delay disease control in the State. "Vaccination is the only weapon to control the disease. Of course, in times like this there might be delays in production, but once the supply resumes, the vaccination drive must pick up speed," he said.
Meanwhile, the minister, earlier in the day, told reporters that vaccine production could be started at the Pasteur Institute of India at Coonoor if raw materials were supplied by the Centre. "One crore vaccines can be produced in a month at the Pasteur Institute if raw material is provided," he said.