NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, APR 18
DMK president M K Stalin on Sunday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to direct officials to send 20 lakh COVID-19 vaccine doses ”requisitioned” by the Tamil Nadu government immediately and ensure supplies commensurate with the state’s population.
In view of rapid increase in the number of people getting infected by COVID-19, ”universal vaccination” is the need of the hour to protect lives, the DMK chief said in a letter to the Prime Minister and appealed to him to ”take a policy decision swiftly,” over it.
#COVID19 பரவலைத் தடுக்க, தமிழ்நாட்டிற்கு கூடுதல் தடுப்பூசி மருந்துகளை மத்திய அரசு அனுப்ப வேண்டும்.
மருந்து மற்றும் உபகரண கொள்முதலில் மாநிலங்களுக்கான கட்டுப்பாடுகளைத் தளர்த்தி, மாநிலப் பேரிடர் மேலாண்மை ஆணையங்களை வலுப்படுத்தி பெருந்தொற்றில் இருந்து மீள @PMOIndia உதவ வேண்டும்! pic.twitter.com/MSRsDEZy7s
— M.K.Stalin (@mkstalin) April 18, 2021
Tamil Nadu would need more vaccine doses than allotted now to accomplish effective vaccinations, break the cycle of infection and flatten the curve, he said.
Now, there was a ”huge shortage of vaccines” across the state and there ”are news reports” to suggest that the people who visit government hospitals for vaccination were returning for want of vaccine availability, Stalin, the leader of opposition claimed.
Stalin requested Modi to intervene and direct the Ministry handling the matter “to supply more number of Covaxin and Covishield vaccines to Tamil Nadu commensurate with the population of the state besides immediately sending 20 lakh vaccines (doses) as requisitioned by the state government.”
The Centre should allow states to independently procure drugs, vaccines and medical equipment as the pandemic affected states could not wait every time for Centre’s nod for ”each and everything,” he said.
Tamil Nadu had on Sunday reported 10,723 new COVID-19 cases pushing the caseload to 9,91,451. Till date, ”only 46.70 lakh people” have been vaccinated out of which, 40.64 lakh were administered the first dose and 6.05 lakh the second dose, he said.
