16.43L doses administered in 2nd mega drive in Tamil Nadu

At least 10,85,097 beneficiaries were given their first dose and 5,58,782 beneficiaries received their second dose. The vaccination drive started off at 7 am at 18,824 vaccination camps and it continued till 8 pm at several vaccination centres.

Health Minister Ma Subramanian inspected vaccination camps at 12 sites in several districts including Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode, Namakkal, Salem and Dharmapuri. He said that the districts with low vaccination coverage and more number of COVID cases were targetted. “As part of the mega vaccination camp, more than 16 lakh vaccine doses were given across the State. Though the target was only 15 lakh, we crossed even that. As the stocks have been exhausted, there won’t be any vaccination camp on Monday. We are expecting more doses from the Union government and once that arrives, more such camps will be organised,” the Health Minister said.

While inspecting the vaccination camp in Coimbatore, he said that the district recorded the highest first dose coverage. “The previous mega vaccination drive was a milestone as 28 lakh doses were administered on a single day. There are 28.29 lakh people in the age group of 18 years and above in Coimbatore and 22 lakh people have received their first jab and 7 lakh people have got their second dose of vaccine,” the Minister said.

He added that the daily cases in Coimbatore have been above the 200+ mark as the district shares borders with Kerala and it was challenging to control the spread as Kerala has been witnessing a spike