Coimbatore district is leading in the State in terms of vaccinating the highest percentage of the eligible population against COVID-19, Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ma. Subramanian said on Sunday.
Of the 29,27,149 lakh population aged above 18 in the district, 75% had received their first dose and 25% had their second dose, said Mr. Subramanian, after inaugurating the second mega vaccination drive in the district, at the Government Headquarters Hospital, Pollachi.
According to the Minister, Coimbatore has done good work in controlling the spread of COVID-19. The presence of 13 inter-state check posts with Kerala however, posed a challenge to the district. “The number of daily cases are close to 200 in Coimbatore district. Though the Kerala government is taking special efforts to combat the disease, the State has been registering cases between 20,000 and 30,000 for the last one month. As people move between Kerala and Tamil Nadu for trade, jobs and education, we have taken steps to reduce disease spread,” he said.
Mr. Subramanian said, the DMK government under Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, has been taking persistent efforts to get more vaccine doses from the Union government. “The number of people inoculated per day stood at 61,440 before the DMK came to power. Now, 2.49 lakh people are getting vaccinated per day,” he said.
According to him, the national average of people who got their first dose of any of the COVID-19 vaccines stood at 62% against Tamil Nadu’s average of 45% as of September 11. The State’s percentage was improved to 52% when 28,91,000 people were vaccinated in the first mega vaccination drive through 40,000 camps on September 12. After a week, the percentage was improved to 56%. To further increase the ratio, the Chief Minister asked for the conducting of the second mega vaccination drive at 20,000 centres on Sunday, he said.
The State made use of 29 lakh doses out of the 30 lakh doses it had on September 12. On Sunday, the State was aiming to administer more than 15 lakh doses out of the stock of 16 lakh doses.
Oxygen generators installed
The Minister also inaugurated two oxygen generators installed at a cost of ₹1.80 crore at the Government Headquarters Hospital, Pollachi, in the presence of Coimbatore District Collector G.S. Sameeran, Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine T.S. Selvavinayagam, Pollachi sub-collector Thakare Shubham Dnyandeorao and other senior officials. He also released a COVID-19 awareness video brought out by the Coimbatore district administration and visited the interstate check post at Meenakshipuram to check screening of people coming from Kerala.
After inspecting mega vaccination camps in Tiruppur district, Mr. Subramanian said that 13.86 lakh out of the eligible population of 20.77 lakh had received the vaccine. Out of the 20.77 lakh, 67 % of people had received their first dose and 13 % received their second dose.
In the mega vaccination drive held on September 12, Tiruppur district was allotted vials for 1.06 lakh doses. However, the health workers managed to extract 15,000 extra doses from the overfill volume from the vials and administered 1.21 lakh doses. This was the highest volume of overfill extracted in the State, he said.
Stating that reports of COVID-19 spread in schools was under control, the Minister said that children started attending physical classes after a gap of one-and-a-half years and people should not create panic.
Due to a shortage in the availability of Covaxin, the Health Department was offering it to those who required the second dose alone, he said.
