Tamil Nadu receives 5 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccine

The government has already identified 47,200 centres where the vaccine will be administered to people once the drive begins on January 16

Tamil Nadu on Tuesday received 5.36 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccines from Serum Institute of India (SII) and they will be sent to districts across the state before January 16 when the vaccination drive will be launched.

The Covishield doses were received via air from Pune on Tuesday morning. In the evening, Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan inspected the site where the vaccines were being stored before they are sent to their respective destinations.

The Health Department has divided the state into 10 zones for vaccination drive. While the Chennai zone will get the highest number of doses at 1,18,000, Coimbatore will get 73,200 doses, and Madurai, 54,100 doses. Radhakrishnan said nearly 5 lakh health workers have registered for the vaccine.

Tamil Nadu has already identified 51 warehouses that will have the capacity to store 2.5 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccine at any given time. The vaccination will be carried out in a phased manner with healthcare workers, and front line staff on the priority list. The next priority will be elderly and people above 50 who have co-morbidities.