Tamil Nadu to apprise Centre on need for vaccine booster dose

Chennai

The State government will again represent to the Centre on the need for a booster following representations from senior citizens who took the second dose of COVID vaccine more than a year ago, Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan said on Wednesday. Interacting with the media after inaugurating a COVID vaccination awareness drive at Vellore old bus stand, he said the State had repeatedly written to the Centre on this issue but a final announcement will come only after the Centre gets an expert opinion. Asked why all COVID samples had to be sent to Pune, he said though such a testing centre was ready in TN, it is yet to get central approval. On why air passengers alone are being checked for the Omicron variant, he said two per cent of the samples are being taken daily for random checking for the new variant.