Palaniswami assures free Covid-19 vaccine to Tamil Nadu people

The entire population of Tamil Nadu will be administered the Covid-19 vaccine free of cost once the trials are over and it is available for public consumption, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami announced on Thursday.

"There is a lot of anxiety about the Coronavirus pandemic among the people. I am making an announcement that the entire population in the state will get the vaccine whose cost will be completely borne by the government," Palaniswami said, addressing a Covid-19 review meeting in Pudukkottai, 380 km from here.

His announcement came hours after the BJP made free vaccine as part of its election manifesto in Bihar which goes to polls in two phases on November 3 and 7. Tamil Nadu faces its most crucial elections in recent years in less than seven months and it was no surprise that the Opposition attacked Palaniswami for the "free" announcement.

"Does the Chief Minister think free Covid-19 vaccine is an incentive that his government gives to people? It is the duty of every government that works for the people to give the vaccine free. It is laughable to see that a person who was not able to provide Rs 5,000 as a relief to people is projecting himself as patronising," Opposition Leader M K Stalin said.

During his speech, Palaniswami also said the state has made huge gains in its fight against Covid-19 as the recovery rate is more than 90 per cent. He also said Tamil Nadu was the only state that did a maximum number of RT-PCR tests.

Government and private hospitals in Tamil Nadu are conducting clinical trials of Covaxin and Covishield vaccines for the past few months. A top government official said it will be a long time before people got a vaccine for Coronavirus as it is still at a premature stage. However, he said, the state government has come out with an initial plan for the vaccination programme.

"The vaccine needs to get validated in the first place. There will be systematic planning for the distribution of the vaccine like we did for pulse polio. We have divided people into categories and have prioritised the set of people who will get the vaccine first," the official said.

He also added that the government has asked its medical units in districts to identify cold storages where the vaccine can be stored before it is given to the people.