In a video message being shared on social media, celebrities from the south Indian film fraternity can be seen speaking on the importance of vaccination. The 45-second clip features actors Suhasini Maniratnam, R Madhvan, Dulquer Salmaan, Atharvaa, Vikram Prabhu, Arvind Swami, Radikaa Sarathkumar, and Nasser. This video is an initiative by the Rotary Club of Madras.
The actors take turns to raise awareness on wearing face masks, following physical distancing and hand hygiene measures. They also talk about the importance of all above the age of 18 years getting vaccinated and urge them to do so. “Let us fight this together,” they say in the video message. The video message has been stitched together with home-shot videos of these celebrities and has English subtitles as well.
— Ranganathan Madhavan (@ActorMadhavan) May 5, 2021
The Rotary Club of Madras, reportedly, donated refrigerators, vaccine carriers and refrigerator trucks worth Rs 1 crore to the Tamil Nadu Health Department for safe transport of vaccine across the state. According to their press statement, this includes two 14-feet refrigerated trucks and two eight-feet refrigerated trucks, 15 ice-lined refrigerators that can store 10 lakh doses of vaccines and 1,000 vaccine carriers.
The Indian government opened vaccination for all those above the age of 18 in the country beginning May 1. People can register themselves on the government’s CoWIN app and schedule a slot for vaccination.
On May 4, about two lakh doses of Covishield and 75,000 vials of Covaxin arrived in Chennai. According to reports, the additional stock arrived in the state’s capital following a request by the state government to the Central government. On the same day, Tamil Nadu reported 21,194 new COVID-19 cases. Of this number, 6,228 patients are from Chennai. The city also has the highest number of active COVID-19 cases in the state. While Tamil Nadu’s active COVID-19 cases stand at 1,25,230, of this number 33,222 are in Chennai.