CHENNAI:Officials of the health department of Tamil Nadu said that enough vaccines are available in the state for the next seven days.
Director of Public health, Dr. T.S. Selvavinayagam while speaking to IANS said: "11, 51, 450 doses of vaccine are available with us as of April 13, Tuesday. This comprises 9.4 lakh doses of Covishield and 2.1 lakh of Covaxin." The public health official also said that there is a regular supply of vaccine from the central government.
It may be recalled that several private hospitals in Tamil Nadu are up in arms against the government for vaccine shortage.
A senior official of the health department when asked on the private hospital's plea that they don't get enough vaccines said, "We provide vaccines to those hospitals who have a better track record in inoculating people."
The official also said that the private hospitals have to update their inoculation history in the government web portal and the department will provide vaccines only if the performance is hundred per cent.
The state health secretary J. Radhakrishnan is pitching hopes on the Sputnik vaccine from Russia. The senior IAS officer told IANS, "It is learnt that the Sputnik vaccine has 90 per cent efficacy and this will give a boost to the vaccination drive."
The Primary Health Centres are insisting on an OTP sent to the Aadhaar number linked mobile phones and with most of the rural populace not having Aadhaar linked mobile numbers, several were not able to inoculate.
Doctors have, however, told these rural populace that they will be inoculated without an OTP number in the coming days.