75 lakh persons yet to take second Covid-19 vaccine dose in Tamil Nadu

With over 75 lakh people yet to receive their second dose of Covid-19 vaccine, the Tamil Nadu government has appealed to them to get their jabs as early as possible by pointing to data that shows the death rate among unvaccinated remains high when compared to those vaccinated.

The government said the Health Department has over 1 crore doses of Covishield and Covaxin as of November 24 and asked people who are due for second dose to get fully inoculated and others to get their first dose.

Tamil Nadu, which fared poorly on the vaccination front in the first few months, fast-tracked the process by conducting special vaccination camps over the weekend across the state. At last count on November 24, the state had administered 6.47 crore vaccine doses and held a special vaccination camp on Thursday during which over 12 lakh doses were administered.

The Health Department said 76 per cent of the eligible population have received their first dose, while the per centage for the second dose is 40 per cent. In a letter to district collectors, Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan referred to the data available with the department that over 84 per cent of the Covid-19 deaths between August and October were among the unvaccinated.

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“As per our own Tamil Nadu data, the risk of an unvaccinated person dying because of Covid is 3.5 times higher when compared to a vaccinated person. This is one of the substantial pieces of evidence available with us which should enable the common man to understand the value of Covid vaccination and take vaccination at the earliest,” Radhakrishnan told the collectors.

With daily cases going below 800 and below 1 per cent of those tested, the Health Department feels accelerating the vaccination drive will help reduce further spread of the Covid-19 virus.

“The situation is dynamic and a close watch needs to be kept on early signs of a surge in active cases or increase in positivity rates. Please ensure that a system should be in place at the micro-level to ensure that whenever cases rise in a smaller place, it gets checked there itself, through local containment measures as per the existing guidelines,” Radhakrishnan said.

The Health Secretary said Chennai, Erode, Namakkal, Salem, Chengalpattu and surrounding areas are still driving the increase in positives and asked districts bordering Kerala to be on alert as the state continues to report a high number of Covid-19 cases.

Asking collectors to stress on officers to insist people to wear masks in closed crowded places and public spaces, the Health Secretary said enforcement of Covid-appropriate behaviour should be given priority.

"With relaxations in place and cases having come down, we have to aim for virus suppression and prevent resurgence. At this stage, it would be extremely important to follow the five-fold strategy which is following Covid-appropriate behaviour, test, track, treat, and vaccination,” he said.

He also asked the collectors to ensure that “complacency does not set in, and there is no let-up in adhering to Covid-appropriate behaviour.”

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