Health

Tamil Nadu vaccine coverage lags; efforts on to boost vaccination

The state health department will make a list of people who haven’t yet got their vaccine shots.

Even as the Covid-19 vaccination campaign has received a push from the government at the Centre and also the states, studies were done among the Tamil Nadu public have found that there is still a good percentage who haven’t taken either the first dose or both the doses.

This has spurred the state government to go into a proactive mode so that all people in the state would get vaccinated. The Tamil Nadu Department of Health has asked health workers operating in the urban and rural scenario to prepare a list of people who have not yet been vaccinated.

The state’s health workers who have been advised to do this are those who go about delivering medicines to the people’s doorsteps under the state’s ‘Amakkalai Thedi Maruthavum Scheme’. These health workers have been directed to make use of the population data so as to ready a list of people who have not taken the vaccine. Further, district collectors have also been asked to look into fewer vaccine coverage areas.

Tamil Nadu vaccine coverage far behind national average

The move comes as a follow up to the revelations by way of studies that 31 per cent of people in Tamil Nadu have not yet taken even a single dose of vaccine. Those who have taken both doses stood at 29 per cent. Compared to the national average of more than 75 per cent for the first dose, the new revelation makes Tamil Nadu far behind the other states.

With the studies throwing up these findings, the state health department is working towards putting in place new measures to vaccinate the entire population, said television news bulletins. There have also been many a discrepancy in vaccination among various districts of the state.

Many senior citizens yet to get even first dose

While districts such as Chennai, Kancheepuram, Coimbatore, Nilgiris, and Tiruppur had 80 per cent first dose vaccine coverage, districts like Tiruppatur, Vellore, Myladuthurai and Ranipet have less than 60 per cent.

Even at a time when it has been established that two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine could bring down the risk of hospitalisation and deaths, it has been revealed that Tamil Nadu’s senior citizens have stayed away from getting vaccinated. The latest analysis shows that just 47 per cent of the 1.04 crore senior citizens have taken their first dose of the vaccine. The seniors who have got the jab twice were just 23 per cent.

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Sanjeev Ramachandran

A journalist with 23 years of experience, Sanjeev has worked with reputed media houses such as Business Standard, The Ne More »
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