Chennai: The Tamil Nadu health department has commenced door-to-door campaigns to check on the people who have not taken the second dose of a Covid-19 vaccine after they have completed the mandatory eligibility period.
According to the department, around 65 lakh people in the state are eligible for the second dose.
The Department is using the services of the mobile vaccination clinics for the purpose of conducting door-to-door awareness and to check out the persons to be inoculated.
Tamil Nadu has already vaccinated 71 per cent of its eligible population with the first dose of vaccine but only 31 per cent have taken their second dose. Except in the Nilgiris (58 per cent) and Chennai (50 per cent), no other districts of the state have touched the 50 per cent mark regarding the second dose of vaccine.
The Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine said that 50,44,862 persons are eligible for the second dose of the Covishield vaccine and 14,11,437 people for Covaxin.
The department has already prepared a list of the people eligible for the second dose on a district level basis and health teams are reaching out to those who are delaying it. The health department is also focusing on those who have yet to take even a single dose of vaccine.
Tamil Nadu Health Minister, Ma Subramanian told IANS: “After the number of new Covid-19 cases has decined drastically, there is a tendency among the people to delay the second dose and this is not acceptable. We have deputed mobile volunteers to check the details of those who have not taken the second dose even after being eligible for the same and would take measures for them to be inoculated.”
Dr. Suchitra V. Menon, Professor of Microbiology, in a Government medical college of Tamil Nadu, told IANS: “People with co-morbidities and those who have undergone organ transplantation like liver transplant, kidney transplant, etc requires a booster dose and you cant ask them to take a booster dose without a second dose and hence people must be made aware that second dose vaccines are as important as the first dose.”
