By PTI
CHENNAI: As many as 60 lakh people in Tamil Nadu have not been inoculated and the Health Department has embarked upon measures to identify the people in order to vaccinate them, State Minister Ma Subramanian said on Thursday.
The Minister for Medical and Family Welfare said during the seventh edition of the mass vaccination campaign scheduled for October 30, the department would target the 60 lakh.
“Till date, 70 per cent of the people (in Tamil Nadu) have received the first dose of vaccine. To date, 5.71 crore vaccinations have been given in the State. About 13 lakh people are waiting to receive the second dose (Bharat Bitotech’s) of Covaxin. We have requested to expedite the release of 10 lakh Covaxin doses by the Centre,” he said.
Subramanian was talking to reporters at the airport here after arriving from New Delhi. Accompanied by health officials, including the Health Department principal secretary J Radhakrishnan, Subramanian has met Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya in the national capital and presented a list of 15 demands of the State.
“My meeting with the Union Health Minister in New Delhi has been very satisfying. Based on the advice by Chief Minister (M K Stalin), we presented 15 demands pertaining to the State to the Minister,” he said.
On the vaccination front, he said 60 lakh people have not been vaccinated and the Health Department was in the process of identifying those who are eligible to receive the doses.
“We have vaccinated 1.33 crore people in the six mass vaccination programmes conducted so far”, he said. On the new type of virus Delta AY.4.2 variant of Covid-19, he said the impact of the virus in Maharashtra was one per cent of the population and no cases were reported in Tamil Nadu.
“However to protect ourselves, getting vaccinated is essential. The department will create awareness campaign among those people who were not vaccinated with a message saying vaccination is the only solution to safeguard us from the virus,” he said.
