Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin writes to PM Modi; seeks allocation of 1 cr COVID-19 vaccine doses

As India continues to battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Tuesday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In his letter, MK Stalin requested the Prime Minister's intervention to correct the imbalance in the COVID-19 vaccine allocation for Tamil Nadu and make a special allocation of 1 crore vaccine doses. 

The letter addressed to PM Modi read, "I invite your kind attention to my earlier letter dated May 27, 2021, wherein I had requested your immediate intervention in making a special allocation of COVID-19 vaccines to Tamil Nadu correct the disproportionately low allocation made to the state, in terms of doses made available per thousand eligible population."

COVID-19: Tamil Nadu CM writes to PM Modi

MK Stalin informed that till July 8, 2021, Tamil Nadu had received 29,18,110 vaccines from the Centre, for the people in the 18-44 years category and 1,30,08,440 vaccines for people above 44 years of age. Remarking that the allocation of vaccines is very inadequate, the TN Chief Minister said that the state government is finding it very difficult to meet the huge demand for vaccination throughout the state. "The success of my government's effort to eliminate vaccine hesitancy and make the vaccination drive a mass movement now rests on the doses made available to us," he added. 

Informing that Tamil Nadu had not received vaccines proportionate to its population size resulting in the current acute shortage of vaccines, MK Stalin said that the number of doses provided to out state is only 302 per thousand eligible population. This is very low when compared to vaccine doses ade available to comparable states like Gujarat, Karnataka and Rajasthan, the CM added. 

Read the full letter here:

COVID-19 situation in Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu has so far recorded over 25,18,786 positive cases, out of which, 24,53,061 have successfully recovered and 33,418 have died. As per the latest reports from MoHFW, in the past 24 hours, 2,775 new cases, 3,188 fresh recoveries and 47 deaths have been reported. Currently, the total number of active cases in the state is 32,307. 

(Image: PTI, ANI)