Tamil Nadu at 9th position in vaccination, lags behind even lesser-developed states

Chennai

To put this in perspective, this is about double of  what Tamil Nadu has achieved. Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka, West Bengal, Madhya  Pradesh  and  Bihar,  too,  have  vaccinated more people than Tamil Nadu.What has affected the inoculation drive in the  State  is  the  severe  shortage  of  stock  that  had  nearly  brought  it  to  a  halt  twice  in  the  past. Now, the authorities are staring at a similar  situation  after  running  out  of  stock  yet  again. Many districts are likely to face short-age this week till the next consignment of vaccines arrives from Centre.Of  the  12  crore  vaccine  doses  scheduled  to  be  distributed  to  the  states  from  union  government  in  July,  Tamil  Nadu  is  expected  to  receive  only  71  lakh  doses.  So  far,  the  State  has received only about 11 lakh doses, and is scheduled to receive 8.21 lakh doses on July 11 and 3.21 lakh on July 14.“We are requesting the Union government to  allocate  more  vaccines  before  the  scheduled  date,  as  the  stock  is  very  limited,”  said  Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan.“The  State  needs  more  allocation  of  vaccines because we are capable of vaccinating more number of people on daily basis. How-ever,  given  the  poor  performance  immediately after the launch of the programme, the allocation  is  low.  As  per  population-based  allocation,   we   should   receive   more   vaccines, and we are requesting for enhancing the    vaccines    in    the    coming    months,”    Radhakrishnan added.So far, 1,69,21,705 persons have been vaccinated  against  COVID  in  the  State  as  on  Tuesday morning, including 1,41,54,348 first doses  and  27,67,357  second  doses.  The  high-est  number  of  doses  administered  on  a  single day was 4,73,654 on July 3.