Ten top doctors are among the six lakh frontline workers who have registered to receive Covid vaccines in Tamil Nadu. Speaking on the arrangements for the vaccine rollout on Saturday, Tamil Nadu Health Minister Dr. C Vijayabaskar on Friday said that the shots will be administered in 166 locations across the state. Confirming that as many as six lakh health workers have pre-registered to receive vaccine shots as per guidelines issued by the central government, the health minister, told reporters that if the Centre permits, he will be happy to take the vaccine on Saturday. As many as 100 people will be administered the vaccine at each centre on Saturday, with the total coming to around 16,600. Vijayabaskar, who oversaw arrangements at the Pudukkotai Government Hospital on Friday, said that Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswamy would be present in Madurai to launch the vaccine drive in Tamil Nadu. “Frontline workers have been identified and based on their willingness, the vaccines would be administered,” the health minister said. He further confirmed that ten leading medical practitioners have volunteered for the vaccination drive as it will not only give confidence to the remaining frontline healthcare staff and the pubic at large but also put to rest all rumours surrounding the efficacy of the vaccine. The minister said auto-disable syringes have also been manufactured exclusively for vaccine administration. Each vial contains 5 ml of vaccine and 10 people at each centre will receive 0.5ml of the vaccine as the first shot. The state was allocated a total 5,56,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines. This contains 5,36,000 doses of Covishield and another 20,000 of the indigenously-developed Covaxin. On Tuesday, the first consignment of 59 Covishield boxes, supplied by the Serum Institute of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, arrived in Chennai from Pune. The day after, three boxes of Covaxin vaccine, supplied by Bharath Biotech, reached the city. They were shifted smoothly to the state vaccine store and from there, was distributed to 10 regional vaccine stores (RVS) – in Chennai, Cuddalore, Tiruchirapalli, Thanjavur, Madurai, Sivaganga, Tirunelveli, Vellore, Salem and Coimbatore. From the regional vaccine stores, they were dispatched to 2,704 cold chain points across the state. Chennai’s regional vaccine centre, which has 359 cold chain points, would receive 11,800 doses of vaccines, the most among all the vaccine stores. From there, 63,700 vaccine doses would be distributed to Greater Chennai Corporation, 19,600 to Tiruvallur, 23,800 to Chengalpattu and 10,900 to Kancheepuram. While the Coimbatore RVS has been allotted 73,200 doses, another 25,500 were dispatched to the Cuddalore store. Tiruchi RVS was allocated 40,200 doses and another 28,600 were moved to the Thanjavur store. Another 54,100 doses were sent to Madurai RVS, while Sivaganga, Tiruneiveli, Vellore and Salem have been allocated 19,000, 51,700, 42,100 and 59,800 vaccine doses respectively. On a visit to Villupuram, Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan said the vaccines are safely placed at the designated cold storage points across the state and registered frontline workers will be inoculated till January 25.
