NE HELATH BUREAU
NEW DELHI, JAN 7
Union Health Minister Harshvardhan will visit Tamil Nadu on Friday to review preparedness and oversee the dry run of COVID-19 vaccination, an official statement said.
A massive countrywide mock drill to prepare for the COVID-19 vaccination is being conducted on Friday in 736 districts across 33 states and UTs.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the Union Health Ministry said Vardhan will personally review the preparedness and oversee the dry run operations at the scheduled sites during his visit to the state.
The Union health minister will visit the sessions site at Government General Hospital, Chennai followed by the one at Government Omandurar Hospital, Chennai.
In the afternoon he will visit the private vaccination centre in Apollo Hospital, Chennai after a brief visit to the General Medical Store Depot (GMSD) in Periamedu.
This is one of the four national vaccine storage facilities, the other three being at Mumbai, Kolkata and Karnal, the statement said.
He will also visit the vaccination Centre at Chengalpattu.
He will be visiting the Hindustan Bio-Tech Ltd campus at Chengalpattu after concluding his supervision at these sites, it added.
Second dry run in Puducherry tomorrow
The second dry run of COVID-19 vaccination would take place here on Friday by the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Puducherry.
The Union Health Ministry had a video conference with the Health Department officials on Thursday and it was apprised that second dry run of the vaccination would be held in nine centres on January 8, Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi said in a press release.
She said the Union Health Ministry through the video conference reviewed the preparedness of the Puducherry government on the COVID-19 vaccination. The Ministry was told that the Union Territory was well prepared in terms of cold storage, personnel and registration.
The first round of dry run on the vaccination was held last week in nine centres as a mock drill to prepare the logistics and preparatory works for implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination.
Chief Minister V Narayanasamy had said recently that around 14,000 health workers and frontline staff would be covered under the vaccination programme once the vaccine is available from the Centre.
805 fresh cases reported in TN
Tamil Nadu on Thursday reported 805 fresh COVID-19 cases taking the tally to 8,23,986 and the death toll increased to 12,200 with 12 more fatalities.
The active cases dipped to 7,547 with 911 patients getting discharged and cumulatively 8,04,239 people have got cured, a Health department bulletin said. The newly infected people include one person each from Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar and Karnataka, 210 from Chennai and the rest were from other regions of the state.
The Tamil Nadu tally of 8.23 lakh plus cases includes the state capital”s count of 2,27,145.
All the 12 people who died, including a 48-year old woman, had comorbidities.
Of the 12,200 fatalities, 4,038 were from here. As many as 64,364 samples were tested and in total 1,46,30,875 specimens have been examined in 242 COVID-19 labs of the state.
Woman succumbs to Covid; toll raised to 636 in Puducherry
78-year-old woman succumbed to coronavirus in Karaikal region, raising the overall toll to 636 in the union territory on Thursday.
As many as 35 new cases were detected at the end of examination of 3,377 samples during the last 24 hours, pushing the tally to 38,369. Director of Health and Family Welfare S Mohan Kumar in a release said Puducherry region accounted for 15 new cases out of the total 35 followed by Karaikal 7, Yanam 1 and Mahe 12. Forty seven patients recovered and were discharged during the last twenty four hours.
The fatality and recovery rates were 1.66 percent and 97.41 percent respectively. Kumar said 5.06 lakh samples were tested so far in the Union Territory and 4.63 lakh samples out of them turned out to be negative.
There were 359 active cases while the total number of patients recovered and were discharged were 37,374. The woman who died due to the viral infection in Karaikal had diabetes as co morbidity, the official added.
