Guest workers to be inoculated for free

CHENNAI: The State health department will vaccinate people coming in groups from other states since a large number of imported cases of COVID-19 are being reported.

Health Minister Ma Subramanian said the cases are seeing a surge in Delhi, Maharashtra, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and other parts of the country. Similar trend is being seen in Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, Israel and other countries. It has been noticed that people coming from other states have tested positive for COVID-19 upon arrival in the state,” he said.

“Construction workers usually come in groups and we are going to vaccinate people coming from other states in government hospitals. People coming from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh who usually travel to Tamil Nadu for work have tested positive. Upon identification of these travellers, Health department officials will conduct the RT-PCR tests for them and no matter how many people are there, we will vaccinate them for free at government hospitals,” the minister said.

He further said as the cases of COVID-19 are increasing, people should get vaccinated. About 91.41 percent people have been vaccinated with first dose and 77.69 percent have received the second dose in the State. As many as 1.46 crore people are due for second dose, and 54 lakh people are yet to get first dose in Tamil Nadu.

Health Minister said the State health department will conduct a special mega vaccination drive at about 1 lakh locations across the State on May 8. “The vaccination will start at 7 am in the morning and go on till 7 pm. The details of camps at district and block level will be informed to the public through the respective district healthcare officials,” he said.