Chennai: Tamilnadu Health Minister Ma.Subramanian has informed the Assembly that the State government is well prepared to tackle any form of Covid.
Replying to a special call attention motion given notice of by AIADMK MLA and former Health Minister C Vijayabaskar on the emrgence of XE variant of the novel coronavirus, he assured the that the government was prepared to tackle the variant, if it emerged in the State.
Vijayabaskar cited reports listing seven sub-variants of the virus that causes Covid-19 and suggesting that the spread of the XE variant might be expected in June.
He pointed out that over 48 lakh people in the State had not taken their first dose of the vaccine and over 1.37 crore people had not taken their second dose. He also claimed vaccination had slowed down.
In his reply, Subramanian recalled the the steps taken by the government which led to bring down the number of cases and there had been no death due to the virus in the past one month.
Subramanian also said the Chief Minister was set to inaugurate over 2,000 beds at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai, which were set up at a cost of Rs 365 crore. The first vaccine dose was administered to 92.37 per cent of the eligible population and the second dose to 77.19 per cent.