R ARIVANANTHAM
CHENNAI, SEP 21
Stating that only one-third of the country’s population has been fully inoculated so far and 115 crore vaccines are still required to give the shots to all the people, Tamil Nadu Minister for Medical And Family Welfare Ma Subramanian on Tuesday urged the Centre to postpone resumption of exports of COVID-19 vaccines under the ”Vaccine Maitri” programme.
https://twitter.com/Subramanian_ma/status/1440299743846887429
Talking to reporters after unveiling the simulation centre at Apollo Hospitals in Vanagaram on Tuesday, Subramanian said the global medical fraternity welcomed the vaccination programme in India, as inoculating people holds the key in the fight against the COVID-19 virus. However, shortage of vaccines had resulted in Tamil Nadu being unable to hold vaccination camps on Monday and Tuesday (Sept 20 and 21) he said.
India's cumulative #COVID19 vaccination coverage exceeds 81.85 crore
More than 96 lakh vaccine doses administered in the last 24 hours#IndiaFightsCorona #LargestVaccineDrive
Read: https://t.co/wBAr8J37gS pic.twitter.com/21kq2k293N
— PIB in Tamil Nadu (@pibchennai) September 21, 2021
The Minister pointed out that the Centre had announced that 80 crore people nationwide have received the jabs, of which 61 crore have received the first dose. “Considering the total population of 1.3 billion people who need to be inoculated, 70 percent of them were identified to be above the age of 18 years, which is 97.30 crore,” he said. Subramanian said that till date 20.77 lakh people, or one-third of the population have received the second dose. So the country still requires another 115 crore doses to vaccinate every one, he said. The minister said he had raised with Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, the issue of vaccinating those in this age group, as was being contemplated by other countries, to which he had replied that he would inform him after holding discussions with the officials.
“Considering all these (issues), the news of resuming vaccines for exports will not be right in any way.. On behalf of the people of Tamil Nadu, we request Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) and the Union Health Minister to postpone the idea to resume vaccine exports and set a target to inoculate all the people in the country”, Subramanian said.
On the initiatives taken by the Tamil Nadu government to vaccinate people, he said 45.34 lakh people have been given the shots in 60,000 camps state-wide on September 12 and 19.
The government requires 12.12 crore vaccines to vaccinate people in the state, he said, adding that 6.06 crore people aged above 18 years have been identified as eligible to receive the shots. “Till date we have vaccinated 4.37 crore people and still need 7.50 crore vaccines,” he said.
Maduravoyal MLA K Ganapathy was also present during the minister’s press briefing.
