TN seeks 50 lakh additional doses of Covid vaccines

The Tamil Nadu government on Monday urged the Centre to allocate an additional 50 lakh doses of Covid vaccines every week, to enable the state in vaccinating all the uncovered eligible persons by the end of October, apart from administering the second dose to those due to receive them.

Chief Minister M K Stalin wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, citing the ''resounding success'' of two mega Covid vaccination camps held on September 12 and 19, where cumulative 45-lakh odd jabs were administered to the public across the state.

''The Government of India has supplied 3.97 crore doses of Covid vaccine and 2.21 crore (0.5 ml) AD syringes to the state, till September 19, 2021. By deriving more doses out of each 10 ml vial, the State has been able to vaccinate 4.13 crore, persons, in Government Covid Vaccination Centres. The state realizes that despite the levels of vaccinations achieved in the state, it still has a large eligible population which is yet to get vaccinated and this continues to make the state vulnerable for Covid cases,'' Stalin said.

Considering the state's capacity and the uncovered eligible population, Tamil Nadu has no other option than to continue organizing such mega camps at regular intervals in addition to daily vaccinations. Only this can help in overcome the low vaccination numbers achieved in the first four months of the vaccination program, Stalin said.

''In our estimation, the state is easily capable of utilizing 50 lakh vaccine doses every week... I have directed my officers to closely liaise with the officials of the Ministry of Health, Government of India and provide all necessary information to enable the state to get the additional doses.'' ''I hence request you to kindly facilitate in providing the additional doses of 50 lakh Covid vaccines to the state along with the equal number of 0.5 ml of AD Syringes or 1 ml/2 ml syringes to the state every week. This will enable the state in vaccinating all the uncovered eligible population by October 31, 2021, apart from administering the second dose to persons who are due to receive them,'' the chief minister said in the letter to the prime minister.