Following the controversy over a COVID-19 vaccination drive recently held by Tiruppur Corporation for industry workers using the vaccine doses allocated for urban primary health centres (UPHC), the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine (DPH) announced that a pharmacist attached to a UPHC in the city has been suspended in connection with the incident.
The DPH said in a statement on Friday that Deputy Director of Health Services (Tiruppur) K. Jegadeesh Kumar conducted an inquiry into the incident based on media reports. He ordered the suspension of the pharmacist and “initiated disciplinary action” against him.
Tiruppur Corporation officials had allegedly used staff nurses from a private hospital for the vaccination drive. The hospital has been “temporarily removed” from the list of vaccination centres in the CoWIN portal, the statement said. Further explanation has been sought from the UPHC’s medical officer.
The Corporation officials had used around 800 Covaxin doses allocated to the 17 UPHCs in Tiruppur to vaccinate the employees of three export apparel units on June 5 allegedly without informing the medical officers of the concerned UPHCs. Sources in the Health Department alleged that the pharmacist received the vaccine doses from the DDHS office on June 5 to distribute it among the UPHCs, but he handed it over to the Corporation officials without informing the Health Department.
The Corporation must have used only the staff members from its UPHCs and not the employees of private hospitals for its vaccination drives, the sources said. The Health Department has sought an explanation from the Tiruppur Corporation.
