Tamil Nadu Health Min flags shortage of COVID vaccines, appeals Centre to resolve crisis

Amid the battle against the second wave of COVID-19, Tamil Nadu Health Minister MA Subramanian flagged the shortage of vaccines in the state on Sunday and urged the Centre to help in order to resolve the crisis. The Health Minister's appeal to the Centre came as Tamil Nadu recorded 30,016 fresh COVID-19 cases while fatalities remained high with 486 people succumbing to the virus. Tamil Nadu Health Minister MA Subramanian said that the available six-lakh COVID vaccine doses with the state would be exhausted in a day or two and added that the state had spent Rs 85 crores and had procured 13.85 lakh doses while another 12 lakh doses were pending to be supplied to the state.

CM Stalin proposes use of Chengalpet facility for COVID vaccine production

Earlier this week, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin had proposed that the Integrated Vaccine Complex (IVC) in Chengalpet should be made functional to enhance the vaccine production capacity. In a letter addressed to PM Modi on Wednesday, CM Stalin had pointed out that the modern vaccine manufacturing facility established by HLL Bio-Tech Limited under the aegis of the Union Health Ministry was lying unutilized. He lamented that no private player could be engaged to run IVC until now despite the fact that the Centre has invested around Rs.700 crore in this establishment. .

The letter read, "At the outset, I wish to thank the Central Government for the support extended to Tamil Nadu in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Mass vaccination is the most potent weapon available to us in this fight and hence it is absolutely necessary that we must ramp up the domestic vaccine manufacturing capacity, in accordance with the Hon'ble Prime Minister's vision of Self-sufficient India". 

Tamil Nadu's COVID-19 situation

Tamil Nadu on Saturday continued to record COVID-19 recoveries outnumbering the new infections for the second day with 30,016 people contracting the contagion and pushing the overall caseload to 20,39,716. 486 people succumbed to the virus in the last 24 hours taking the toll to 23,261 till date, the Health Department said. According to a medical bulletin, as many as 31, 759 people have walked out of healthcare facilities aggregating 17,06,298 and leaving 3,10,157 active infections.

Chennai, which has been witnessing a steady decline in the new infections, added 2,705 cases totalling 4,99,298 overall. The metropolis leads in the number of fatalities with 6,914 deaths so far. The number of samples tested today was at 1,74,349 pushing the cumulative number of specimens examined so far to 2,73,38,092 till date. Coimbatore overtook Chennai (2,705) in the number of the new infections by reporting 3,692 cases followed by Erode 1,743, Tiruppur 1,697, Salem 1,492, Chengalpet 1,314, Tiruchirappalli 1,099 and Tiruvallur 1,072.