Tamil Nadu: Vaccination mandatory to buy liquor from TASMAC shops

The Tamil Nadu government has made Covid vaccination mandatory for buying liquor from the state-owned TASMAC outlets.

State Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Sunday said a circular would be issued to all the district collectors to strictly monitor the directions of the government.

The state breached the seven-crore mark in Covid-19 vaccinations as 16.05 lakh people were administered the jabs during the 12th mega inoculation drive held across the state. As per the release, 78.35 per cent of the eligible population has received their first dose of vaccine while 43.86 per cent got their second.

Meanwhile, amid reports of the ‘Omicron’ strain abroad, Chief Minister MK Stalin would be holding a meeting with higher officials today to discuss steps to intensify precautionary measures.

In a letter to the district officials shared with the media on Sunday, state Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan stressed that enhancing surveillance and field-level investigations, use of facial masks, physical distancing, and hand hygiene remain key to reducing transmission of the new variant.

Health Minister Subramanian Monday inspected the genome sequencing lab at the campus of the Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Services (DMS) campus in Chennai. He said 95 per cent of the people who tested positive in the state carry the Delta variant. He said directions have been issued to the airport authorities to intensify testing procedures for the passengers coming from other countries.

He added that officials have been deployed at all the four international airports (Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore and Tiruchirapalli) in the state to personally monitor the screening measures. Subramanian said he would be visiting these airports personally alongside other officials to provide necessary instructions.