10,256 vaccinated on day 3, Tamil Nadu witnesses four-fold increase in turnout

As many as 10,256 workers took the shots on Monday, with 205 volunteers taking Covaxin and the rest taking Covishield.

A total of 945 volunteers, highest in the State, turned up in Salem followed by 801 in Chennai. Commenting on the drastic rise in vaccinations, Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan said that they expected the drive to pick up its pace after Pongal holidays and it turned out right.

"The vaccination sites can be increased/ decreased and shifted depending on the numbers and the demand following consultation with the Centre. The increase in numbers is very encouraging as more and more health workers are willingly coming forward to get vaccinated," he said.

Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine Dr TS Selvavinayagam said that the numbers are expected to increase further in the coming days. Commenting on the absentees, he said, “The registrations of all the healthcare workers remain in the CoWIN portal. Even if they do not turn up at the vaccination site on the informed date and they can get it done later.” 

He added that there have been no incidents of drastic adverse effects reported so far. However, doctors claim that there have been few incidents in other states which may be a cause of concern among the healthcare workers. "A lot of them are waiting to observe if their colleagues are doing well after taking the jab as they are scared to take it themselves. Though we have not reported any cases of adverse reaction so far, there is a need of educating the healthcare workers, especially the sanitary workers and staff nurses about the behaviour and mechanism of the vaccines," said Dr GR Ravindranath, secretary, Doctor's Association for Social Equality.