Tamil Nadu warms up for Covid-19 vaccination, over 150 sites to be in operation

In Tamil Nadu, as many as 4.8 lakh healthcare workers from government and private are registered with the Co-WIN app for the vaccination drive, as per the official details available on January 14.

166 vaccination sites, including hospitals and primary healthcare centres, will function on January 16, where pre-registered candidates will receive an SMS with their allotted location. A vaccination officer will check their identity, ensure that the person doesn’t have Covid-like symptoms. They will be observed for 30 minutes after receiving the vaccine jab. A committee including a cardiologist and a neurologist has been formed to monitor cases of adverse effects. A candidate must strictly be administered the same vaccine for both liquid doses, said Vinay.

Tamil Nadu has identified ten prominent personalities in the medical field to take the vaccine to allay fears. “This will prevent rumours,” health minister C Vijayabhaskar told reporters in Pudukkottai on Saturday.

Chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami will participate in the vaccination drive tomorrow in Madurai where a sanitary worker of a hospital is expected to receive the first shot.

Tamil Nadu has received a total of 556,550 vaccine doses, of which 536,550 is Covishield vaccine from the Serum Institute of India, Pune and 20,000 doses of Covaxin vaccine from Bharath Biotech.

The vaccines have been distributed from Chennai to ten regional vaccine storage facilities and down to 45 district-level vaccine stores. “From here the vaccines have reached cold chain points and will be delivered across 166 locations tomorrow,” said Vinay. The state has 2,704 cold chain points and has established 50 walk-in coolers as additional storage points.

The state government aims to vaccinate 20 per cent of the population (1.6 crore) between January and December 2021. About 16,846 vaccinators have been trained for the exercise.

Dr Melvin George, co-investigator in Covaxin trials at SRM Medical College Hospital in the outskirts of Chennai, said that the side-effects were minor such as injection site reaction, fever or body pain. He also added that it wasn’t known how long the effects of the vaccine will last. “Based on other vaccines, we can say that the vaccine’s protection will last for six months or a year,” said George. “We have short-term data but we do not have answers on long-term data now.”