A senior official from the Greater Chennai Corporation said that only 14,000 people were vaccinated on Sunday.
Vaccination grinded to a slow halt in Chennai on Monday as the city ran out of vaccine stocks once again. A senior official of the Chennai Corporation confirmed to TNM that the city and in fact the entire state was running out of vaccine stocks.
On Monday, July 5, the Greater Chennai Corporation’s website announced that no vaccination camps would be organised during the day due to shortage of vaccine doses. The newly launched Greater Chennai Corporation website for booking vaccine slots also showed no availability of bookings on Monday. The Corporation was also unable to hold any special vaccination drives in the city on Monday due to the shortage.
A senior official from the Corporation also told TNM that only 14,000 people were vaccinated in Chennai city on Sunday, July 4. On Friday and Saturday, the Corporation had vaccinated more than double this number with 29,613 people vaccinated on Friday and 26,206 people on Saturday. Across Tamil Nadu, only 62,000 people were vaccinated on Sunday, as per CoWin dashboard. Tamil Nadu had vaccinated 4.09 lakh people on Saturday and 2.81 lakh people on Friday.
However officials expect stocks to be replenished soon. “We might get fresh stocks today. They are replenished on short notice usually. Once we get the fresh stock we will resume the vaccination drive,” he explained.
Coimbatore Corporation saw no vaccinations being held in the city on Sunday. As per CoWin dashboard, only 3125 doses were administered across Coimbatore district. According to reports, in Trichy city which saw a heavy demand for vaccines, only 741 people were vaccinated on Sunday. In Madurai, persons in the 18 to 44 category were not being vaccinated in the Primary Health Centres due to shortage of vaccines. Reports stated that only 9000 odd vaccine doses were available in the Madurai PHCs and 20 in the Government Rajaji Hospital. The priority was to vaccinate vulnerable groups in Madurai’s rural areas. Vaccines are also over in most PHCs before 10, according to reports.
Last week too, vaccination drives were suspended in Tamil Nadu after the state utilised its entire supply of vaccine doses available. Chennai and Coimbatore suspended their vaccination camps and several people who turned up at centres were greeted with the board “no stock”. In Chennai city, the vaccination drive was suspended in 45 centres and 19 primary health centres.
Health Minister Ma Subramanian had earlier said that Tamil Nadu is expected to receive 71 lakh doses of vaccine from the Union government in July. He added that in June, the Union govt was to send 42 lakh doses but ended up sending 50 lakh doses due to Tamil Nadu’s vaccination performance.
Source: The News Minute