Tamil Nadu faces vaccine shortage, seek Central government's support

Chennai, May 30: Tamil Nadu health minister Ma Subramaniam in a statement on Sunday said that the state is running out of vaccines and has sought the help of the Central government to overcome this crisis.

Minister said that the state has 6 lakh doses of vaccines and it would be exhausted in a day or two. He said that the state has paid Rs 85 crore and sourced 13.85 lakh doses of vaccine and another 12 lakh doses are yet to arrive.

Ma Subramaniam while speaking to IANS said, "We have received so far 95.59 lakh doses of vaccines and have already inoculated 84.5 lakh people and with the current stock we would be able to continue with the drive for may be two to three days. For people above 45 years of age we have 6 lakh doses of the vaccine while for those between 18-44, we have only 2 lakh doses."

The minister also said that the Tamil Nadu government has floated a global tender for 3.5 crore doses of vaccine and that the tender process will be completed by June 5. He said, "The procurement of the vaccine will be done in six months and everyone who is eligible will be vaccinated."

The health minister also said that the chief minister has sent a minister to New Delhi to discuss and urge the Centre to initiate steps to commence vaccine production at the Chengalpet Integrated Vaccine complex.