The administration on Monday rolled out a door-to-door COVID-19 vaccination campaign led by MLAs of their respective constituencies in a bid to achieve full coverage of the population above 18 years with at least a single dose in the next 10 days.
Addressing the media after inspecting the door-to-door vaccination drive at Pillaiyar Koil Street in Karuvadikuppam of Kalapet constituency, Lt. Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan appealed to legislators, irrespective of their political alignment, to prioritise efforts to protect people against the coronavirus.
Teams of healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses and ASHA workers, had been assigned to each constituency and for the next 10 days they would only focus on administering COVID-19 vaccines to those who are yet to take the jab.
While urging people who were yet to take a vaccine to do so without delay by availing the extensive facilities being hosted by the government, Ms. Soundararajan said this was imperative not only from the all-too-important standpoint of self protection from the virus and not passing an infection to others, but also because future access to welfare benefits or schemes could require proof of vaccination as an eligibility criteria.
She pointed out in an extraordinary situation of a globe-spanning pandemic, the experience across countries had been that in the absence of voluntary participation in preventive interventions was resulting in harsher norms, requiring mandatory compliance.
“The rules in a pandemic are framed to prevent transmission. No one has the right to infect others due to one’s laxity... in fact, getting inoculated is one’s social responsibility during a pandemic,” she said. Moreover, the evidence from the data was overwhelmingly in favour of taking the vaccine as 98% of ICU admissions were patients who had not taken the jab, she added.
Ms. Soundararajan, who also visited a similar drive at Thiruvalluvar Nagar, was accompanied by MLAs P.M.L. Kalyanasundaram and M. Vaithianathan, T. Arun, Health Secretary, and G. Sriramulu, Health Director.
Hospital infrastructure
Earlier in the day, the Lt. Governor held a review meeting of the obstetrics, gynaecology and paediatrics departments at the Rajiv Gandhi Government Women and Children Hospital.
The meeting was part of an initiative to raise the quality of government healthcare institutions to international standards and sought to obtain feedback on the shortcomings and requirements of equipment and manpower, the Lt. Governor said.
