CHENNAI: The Union government has increased the medical oxygen allocation to Tamil Nadu to 650 MT, said health secretary J Radhakrishnan.
Speaking to the press at the King Institute, Guindy, on Monday, Radhakrishnan said the Centre in its revised medical oxygen allotment order on Sunday has raised Tamil Nadu's share to 650 MT. The state was first allotted 220 MT, then it was increased to 519 MT and now it was further increased to 650 MT.
The state has been allotted 50 MT of oxygen each from two plants in Odisha and 46 MT from another plant in Odisha. Also, it has been allotted 60 MT from a plant in Maharashtra.
"Apart from this, 140 MT of oxygen from Singapore has reached Vizag (Visakhapatnam) and from there it will reach Tamil Nadu by road. A team is also monitoring the oxygen distribution and supply round the clock," said Radhakrishnan.
The Health Minister Ma Subramanian who inspected the government Covid hospital at the King Institute, Guindy, said the state has been increasing oxygen beds. On Monday, 104 oxygen beds were added at the King Institute. In Chennai, around 1,000 oxygen beds are available in Covid care centres.
The minister also said that zero-delay wards will be opened in all government hospitals across the state to reduce patient waiting time in ambulances for admissions and for immediate oxygen support and treatment.
Vaccines distributed to all districts
The state has started distributing vaccines to all districts to carry out the vaccination drive for the 18-44 age group.
Ma Subramanian said that in the first wave, the state reported 13 percent of vaccine wastage and of the 77 lakh received, only two lakh were left. With the recent arrival of about 11 lakh doses, the vaccines are being distributed to all the districts in the state. Once the doses reach the districts, vaccination for select categories like newspaper boys, milk and vegetables vendors, auto drivers, disabled and other vulnerable groups will start from Tuesday.
The health minister said in a week these groups will be covered and special camps may be conducted for doorstep vaccination.
The minister said the central government has been discriminatory in allocation of vaccines to states. He said 16.4 percent of vaccines have been allocated to Gujarat which has a population of around 6.37 crore. On the other hand, Tamil Nadu with 8.38 crore population has been allocated only 6.4 percent of the vaccines.
He said once the state is able to procure vaccines via the global tenders it has issued, universal vaccination will be implemented.
According to Health Department data, Chennai was allotted 1.33 lakh doses for vaccinating the 18 plus age group. Coimbatore was allotted 67,700 doses and Madurai 57,800. Tiruvallur, Chengalpattu and Kancheepuram were allotted 40,700, 42,900 and 39,000 doses respectively. The 10 districts where the caseload is high got a significant allotment.
Meanwhile, on Monday the state received 1.99 lakh doses of Covishield from the Centre.