Vax hesitancy a major challenge for TN govt, says health minister

Vax hesitancy a major challenge for TN govt, says health minister

Jayaraj Sivan & Pushpa Narayan TNN

Chennai:20.05.2021 

The biggest challenge for Tamil Nadu government in its fight against the Covid-19 pandemic is the hesitancy of the people in rural areas and the poor in urban centres to get vaccinated, said state health minister M Subramanian in an interview to TOI. “We create awareness among people to get themselves vaccinated. We tell them that if adults get vaccinated, it would encourage children to get inoculated when their turn comes. Another major challenge is delay by people in seeking medical care in Tamil Nadu,” he said.

Indifference of political executives and bureaucratic slackness since February, when the assembly elections were set in motion, resulted in abnormal increase in Covid infection and Tamil Nadu’s medical infrastructure getting overstretched, he said. “However, this is not the time to play the blame game. Our job is to set things right and we are at it,” he said.

Subramanian is cracking the whip to rein in erring medicos who throw the government guidelines and Covid protocols to the wind. He has transferred deans of a few medical colleges for permitting attendants of Covid patients inside Covid wards and ICUs, despite government orders prohibiting it. Many others have been put on notice for flouting norms. The pandemic may have hit the peak in Tamil Nadu and going by the present trend, it could subside within a month, he said. Daily fresh cases in Chennai has remained below 7,000 for four days in a row. The numbers have plateaued in several other districts, he said. FULL Q&A: P2

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