Chennai: Though Tamilnadu has moved to phase one of unlock, vaccination – the vital prevention tool against Covid-19 – has come to a grinding halt in several districts due to zero stock.
Health Minister Ma Subramanian said there was nil stock of covid vaccines in 34 districts of the State.
Talking to reporters here, he said only two to three districts have stocks of Covid-19 vaccines. The State presently has only 23,000 doses of vaccine, he added.
“We have so far received nearly 1.01 crore doses of vaccines of which 97.35 lakh doses were administered. We have 23,000 doses in hand. Of this, Chennai has 16,000 doses followed by about 4,000 doses in Coimbatore,” he said.
The remaining vaccines are available in two to three districts, while the vaccine stock was nil in 34 districts. About 3 to 3.5 lakh doses of vaccines were wasted during the first wave, Subramanian added.
Stating that Tamilnadu should get nearly 42 lakh doses from the Centre’s pool for the month of June, he said the Union government had already supplied 5.5 lakh doses and another 36.5 lakh should be given to the State.
On Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement that the Centre would supply vaccines for persons aged above 18 years from 21 June, the Minister said the supply should be based on population.
Meanwhile, Tamilnadu is likely to receive 63,370 doses of Covaxin and on Thursday, the State is expecting another 40,000 doses. On Friday, Serum Institute of India is expected to send 3.6 lakh doses of Covishield.
So far, 1.01 crore doses both under the state and central quota have been received and 97.5 lakh doses administered until Tuesday. Three lakh doses have been wasted since January 2021.