35th mega vaccination drive: 12.28 lakh people vaccinated

CHENNAI: At least 12.28 lakh people were vaccinated during the 35th mega vaccination drive organised at 50,000 locations across the State on Sunday.

A total of 78,337 beneficiaries have been administered with the first dose, 2.91 lakh beneficiaries were given second dose and 8.59 lakh precautionary booster doses were administered.

Health Minister Ma Subramanian said that people are becoming negligent towards Covid and the public response to vaccination against Covid is not good. Since the cases of Covid are low in the State and the deaths due to the infection are also low, people are not giving importance to the vaccination.

However, several foreign countries are facing challenges of increasing cases of Covid and it is important that everyone eligible should get vaccinated, " he said.

The state health department is organising the mega vaccination drive on all Sundays this month.

The health minister said that the main focus of the drive is to encourage booster dose vaccination in the State as only about 14.88 percent of the eligible population have been vaccinated with the precautionary booster dose. At least 4.66 crore are eligible for precautionary booster dose vaccination but have not yet received the vaccine, " said Ma Subramanian.

He added that the free precautionary booster dose vaccination will continue till the end of this month and more number of people should benefit from the same. Despite low numbers of Covid currently, we should stay protected against the infection, " he said.

So far, 96.39 percent of people above the age of 18 have been vaccinated with the first dose of Covid vaccines and 90.61 percent have received both doses. As many as 5.10 lakh beneficiaries have benefited from 34 mega vaccination drives.