Shortage of COVID vaccines in Chennai and in TN is an issue now
Posted on: 02/Apr/2021 9:21:41 AM
From yesterday 1st April 2021 onwards, Covid-19 vaccinations are being given to persons above 45 years of age. Now, shortage of these vaccines plus hesitancy has been cited as the 2 main reasons for the low vaccine tally in TN on Thursday.
It must be taken into note that at 7pm in the evening on Thursday as many as82992 persons including 34254 persons above the age of 45 were given vaccine shots.
The acute shortage of Covid-19 vaccines in Coimbatore has caused many to be turned away and the camps were also restricted. For the last few days, this important city in TN has been facing a shortage of Covid- 19 vaccines is well known. There were less than 200 doses of Covaxin and this was according to the district officers. Truth is that vaccines were reserved for those who were getting their second shots. The availability of less than10000 doses of Covishield vaccines across the hospitals has made the districts to cancel camps at PHCs.
Truth is that many PHCs in rural and in urban places redirected the people to medical college hospitals for Covid vaccinations. It was brought out by a retired bank manager that he and his family visited Saravanampatti PHC but was directed to GH. Inspite of long distance, he and his family took Covid shots at the GH. There were also many who waited till the PHCs nearby got stocks again.
For boosting the coverage of Covid vaccination, GCC organised camps in many residential places besides primary urban health centres etc. Truth is that many Chennai hospitals also ran out of Covaxin. A resident belonging to an apartment complex in ECR spoke about how civic authorities have been asked to hold camp in their apartment and how agreed. Many people from the neighbourhoods also turned up to get vaccination.
As per Dr. K. Vinaykumar, joint director of Public Health, as on 7pm yesterday TN had 6.6lakh doses including 1.34 lakh doses of Covaxin. He hinted that Covaxin has been available at all the medical college hospitals and in the smaller centres Covain has been reserved for those coming for their second doses. There are enough stocks available for another 5 days and on 3rd April a fresh batch of Covishield vaccine will be obtained. In addition, another fresh batch of Covaxin would be available from 5th April onwards. It is now confirmed that there might be some issues regarding redistribution but no one would be turned away.
