As monsoon nears, Ma Su holds meeting with dist health officials

CHENNAI: Health Minister Ma Subramanian held a review meeting on the need of medical camps, monsoon preparedness, cleaning of hospital premises, with deputy director of health services and other district healthcare officials at Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super-Speciality Hospital on Tuesday.

He said that the administration of Covid vaccination is being done successfully and the first dose of the vaccine has been given to 96 per cent people and the second dose vaccine has been given to 91 per cent people. Regarding booster vaccine, a request has been made to the Union Government to continue free precautionary booster dose vaccination in the State. At present, 9 lakh vaccines are in stock in Tamil Nadu.

Talking about the newly-inaugurated medical colleges, he said that the 11 new colleges are currently functioning and steps will be taken to ensure all these hospitals function with 600 to 700 beds each. Moreover, the State has requested the Union Government to permit starting of 25 primary health centers and 25 urban health centers. For more than two consecutive months, the state health department is holding discussions with the district joint directors and deputy directors to decide as to which districts require these health centers.

Regarding the postings of staff in medical colleges, the Health Minister said that the principals are posted for all medical colleges, but some posts are vacant in few medical college hospitals and will be filled soon.

"With the onset of northeast monsoon, the authorities have been advised to take steps to clean the water to prevent the outbreaks of fever like malaria. In Tamil Nadu, more than 300 cases of AH1N1 flu were reported in earlier. Now, intensive flu camps have been conducted in more than 1,000 places and flu has been brought under control. Only five people have been diagnosed with AH1N1 flu in the last 24 hours. At least 13,178 special fever camps have been conducted so far and 389 mobile medical vehicles were used to conduct fever screening for students in schools,” he added.