Shortage in availability of vaccine seems to be affecting in some areas in the district the special drive to cover industry workers.
A three-day vaccination camp planned at SIDCO Industrial Estate, Kurichi, saw 1,350 workers registered for the vaccination. On Thursday and Friday, a total of 460 were vaccinated at the Estate and there was no camp on Saturday. According to P. Nallathambi, president of the Coimbatore SIDCO Industrial Estate Manufacturers’ Welfare Association, the organisers of the camp had asked for 300 more doses. But, it was not available on Saturday. “We had registered the workers and given different slots to different industries at the estate. But, the camp was not held on Saturday as vaccines were not supplied. We are told that vaccines will be available on Monday,” he said.
An official said that the plan was to cover about 35,000 workers in the district by April 26. However, this will depend on the availability of vaccines. A few camps were held at industries on Saturday. However, plans to hold camps for workers of micro, jewellery, and coir units will depend on the availability of vaccine in the coming days. The camps will continue when the vaccines are available, he said.
Till Saturday (April 17), about 11,200 workers of industries were vaccinated in the district through special camps. On Saturday, 1,140 workers were vaccinated at four large industries.
A senior official from the Health Department said that 6,000 additional vaccine doses were supplied by the State government to Coimbatore district on Saturday. This included 5,000 Covishield doses and 1,000 Covaxin doses. While 10,000 Covishield doses were supplied to the district on Friday, there is sufficient vaccine in the district for the next two days, he said.
With the spurt in demand for vaccination in all government and private vaccination centres amid the second wave of the pandemic, the Health Department would not be able to supply large quantities of vaccine doses for mass vaccination drives due to the vaccine shortage, the official said. The available doses would be distributed among all the vaccination centres, he added.
