Chennai: With Tamilnadu almost exhausting the Covid-19 vaccine doses at its disposal, that too at a time when coronavirus infections are coming down in the State, experts express fear that this might lead to increase in cases.
Not ready to take any chance, the State government is taking all measures to secure vaccines, sources said, adding that it is in the hands of the Central government to provide more jabs to Tamilnadu.
Chief Minister M K Stalin on Wednesday stressed upon the need to immediately operationalise the Integrated Vaccine Complex (IVC) at Chengalpet, established by HLL Bio-Tech Limited under the Union Health Ministry, besides prioritising June month’s vaccine supplies to the State to recommence the inoculation drive.
In a letter to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, copies of which were released to the media here, he said representatives of the TN government had also him and discussed the feasibilty of handing over the facility to the State government so as to enable it to identify a suitable private partner to operate it and commence the production at the earliest.
“Subsdequently it has been informed to us that the Union government intends to bring in a partner on its own to perate the plant,” he said.
“While I would like to reiterate our earlier request, I wish to highlight to you the urgency of the moment, given the need for immediate commencement of production,” Stalin said.
Irrespective of whether it is the Union government or the State government, which is to find the partner to operationalise the plant, the need of the hour is to ensure that there is absolutely no further delay in the process, he said, in the letter.
While assuring the Union Minister of ‘unflinching and wholehearted support’ from his government in putting this national asset to its full use, the Chief Minister also recalled his earlier letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard.
Pointing out that the Covid-19 vaccine supply to Tamilnadu was almost exhausted, he urged the Centre to prioritise Tamilnadu and frontload the June month’s supplies from the first week itself.
“This would help us to recommence our vaccination drive and sustain the momentum generated by us in the last fortnight,” he added
Recalling his earlier communications on Covid-19 vaccines, which were not in proportionate to the State’s population and caseload, he said it could be corrected only by a special allocation of 50 lakh doses each under the Government of India channel and Other than Government of India channel.
Thanking the Centre for allocating 25.84 lakh doses under the former and 16.74 lakh doses under the latter, he also pointed out that this allotment was just commensurate with the broader increase at the national level and the TN’s request for a special allotment to correct the earlier lower allocation was still to be addressed.
Stalin reiterated his request to the Centre to look into this issue and ensure that Tamilnadu was allocated vaccines at levels comparable to comparable States.