Chennai, Dec 27 (IANS) The Tamil Nadu health department in a statement said that it has inoculated 17.31 lakh, people during the 16th mega vaccination drive.
The mega drive was conducted on Sunday. According to information from the health department around 50,000 centres were set up for the mega vaccine drive, the 16th of its kind in the state.
A total of 5,17,126 people received the first jab of the vaccine during the camp while 12,14,151 received the second dose. The health department in the statement said that this has led to 85.71 per cent of the population taking the first dose of the vaccine and 57.85 percentage of the population taking the second dose of the jab.
Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian visited a few vaccination centres in Chennai on Sunday. The state is gearing up for providing vaccination to children in the age group of 15-18 from January 3 onwards and precautionary jab for the health workers and Covid-19 frontline warriors from January 10 onwards.
The health minister while speaking to IANS said, “The state is well prepared for the jab of children in the age group of 15-18 commencing from January 3 and for the precautionary jab for health care professionals and front line warriors fighting Covid -19 from January 10 onwards. Prime Minister has already announced the dates and the states have to set up the centres and healthcare professionals for executing the programme and we are well prepared for that.”
With the rising cases of Omicron across the world and Tamil Nadu reporting 38 cases, the state health department has geared up for the possibility of rising cases. State health secretary J. Radhakrishnan has already conducted a virtual meeting with all the district collectors and district health officers and apprised them of the need for an increase in health infrastructure.
The Greater Chennai Corporation has already announced the setting up of camps in its own premises as schools and colleges that were used as camps are now opened.
–IANS
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