TN to wrap up1st dose for health staff by Feb 20

SHOT OF HOPE

TN to wrap up1st dose for health staff by Feb 20

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:10.02.2021

Healthcare providers, who have not taken the Covid-19 vaccine yet, will be asked to visit any government vaccine centres in alphabetic order as per their first name. Those who do not turn up will be moved to the “general category” on the CoWIN portal, the directorate of public health said.

Only 1.74 lakh healthcare providers have taken the vaccine though there are 5.5 lakh registrations. “We have directions from the Centre to complete vaccinations for healthcare providers by February 20 and start preparations for the second dose. The programme is voluntary but we cannot wait endlessly for people to shun their hesitancy,” said director of public health Dr T S Selvavinayagam.

Directions have been given to all district health authorities to vaccinate healthcare workers walking into any centre. “To restrict crowds, we are asking them to walk in according to alphabetical order. There will be two mop days on February 21 and 22 when all healthcare workers can walk in for the first dose. If they don’t, their names will be moved to the general public category,” he said.

On Tuesday, 7,436 healthcare workers, 1,480 frontline workers and 1,634 policemen took the vaccine, taking the day’s recipient tally to 10,550. The tally was higher compared to 8,619 the previous day.

Meanwhile, the state added 469 cases and four deaths to the state registry. There were 4,328 people still under treatment for the viral infection. While Chennai reported two deaths, its neighbours Chengalpet and Tiruvallur reported one death each.

339 vaccinated in Puducherry

The directorate of health and family welfare services administered vaccines to 317 healthcare and 32 frontline workers in Puducherry on Tuesday when 35 new cases and zero deaths were reported. With 37 recoveries, the number of active cases came down to 307. TNN