Chennai: Though Covid-19 figures are coming down in Tamilnadu, the rate in which it is reducing is not sufficient, feel top officials, who are betting big on two things- vaccination and people’s cooperation.
At a time when the State was starring at shortage of vaccines, Tamilnadu has received a total of 5.6 lakh Covishield vaccines for vaccinating the people, including those in the 18-44 age group.
A day after the Tamilnadu government said the vaccination might have to be stopped for three days in view of the vaccine shortage as the Centre has allotted less numbers, the State on Tuesday received 4,20,570 does of Covishield vaccines from Pune.
The consignment came in 36 parcels to the Chennai airport in an Indigo Airlines flight at the airport last evening.
The parcels were handed over to the Health Department officials who transported them to the DMS complex in the city.
In the same flight, the State also received 36,000 doses of Covishield vaccines meant for private hospitals from Pune.
Another 13 parcels, containing 1,45,900 doses of Covishield vaccines also landed in the city, taking the numbers of about 5.6 lakh doses on a single day.
Meanwhile, asserting that the lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19 could not be extended endlessly, Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday the pandemic could be eradicated only with the peopleās full support and cooperation.
In a video message to the people of the State, he said, “We cannot keep extending the lockdown…there has to be a full stop to this soon. It is only in peopleās hands. There can be a full stop to the spread of Covid only if restrictions are followed completely.”
Noting that even if some people violated the lockdown restriction, its complete effect could not be realised, he said, “we had to face the second wave because of the failure to put a full stop to the first wave”.
The second wave has posed a challenge to the State’s economy and health infrastructure, he said.
People should realise that the lockdown was the only option available to contain the spread of virus, Stalin said and urged the people to stay indoors and make use of the mobile vegetable shops and ration shops which have been allowed to function by the State government during the lockdown.
Pointing out that the Covid graph has been showing a declining trend in Chennai and other major across the State due to the imposition of the intense and full lockdown, he said Chennai, which had earlier reported about 7,000 positive cases per day, was only reporting about 2,000 cases over the past few days. “It will decline further in the next few days,” he added.
However, the cases were increasing in the western region, including Coimbatore. This has also been coming down in the past two days.
He also said due to the steps taken by the government a situation has come wherein patients need not have struggle to get a bed. The truth is that there are vacant beds in several hospitals.