More people in the 18-45 age group take COVID-19 vaccine

Vaccine hesitancy appears to be waning as more than 10,000 people were inoculated per day over the last few days in Tiruchi. More than 50% of the people showing eagerness to get vaccinated were between 18 to 45-years-old, officials said.

Officials of the Department of Public Health said that since the Tiruchi City Corporation began inoculation for people over the age of 18, the number of people lining up to get the vaccine has been on the rise.

According to data from the past three days - May 25, 26 and 27, 7861, 12,254 and 18,324 people took the shot. On May 25, of the 7,861 beneficiaries, 6,659 were people over the age of 18, and 5,684 of them had taken the shot at government vaccination centres. Similar trends were observed for the next two consecutive days, with 10,279 of the 12,254 on May 26, and 14,954 of the 18,324 on May 27 belonging to the same age group.

The people who received the vaccine shots in the specified age group were from especially vulnerable professions identified by the Department of Health and the Tiruchi City Corporation, including newspaper vendors, milk vendors, staff at grocery shops, volunteers distributing food to COVID-19 patients, auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers, people working in e-commerce, school teachers, construction labourers and airport employees.

Central and State government staff must carry their employment ID cards to get inoculated at these centres.

S. Ram Ganesh, Deputy Director of Health Services, noted that the people in that age group were the most interested in getting the vaccination. "They are the most exposed group during the lockdown and realised the importance of taking the vaccine as the only way to fight COVID-19. The public must take the enthusiasm displayed by the people of this age group as an example and get vaccinated as soon as possible," he said. Dr. Ganesh noted that the department was being supplied with sufficient doses of Covishield, but Covaxin was still hard to come by.

The Tiruchi City Corporation, with its six special camps to inoculate people in the 18 to 45 category alone, reported at least 3,500 people taking the jab per day.

"At some camps, we are having to turn them away as the day's stock runs out quickly," a health official said. While the camp is scheduled from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, the stock usually runs out by noon, he added.