The Tamil Nadu Health Department has commenced door-to-door campaigns to identify all those eligible who have not yet taken the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. According to the department, around 65 lakh people in the state are eligible for the second dose. The department has said that it is using the services of mobile vaccination clinics for the purpose of conducting door-to-door awareness and to identify the persons to be inoculated.
Tamil Nadu has already vaccinated 71% of its eligible population with the first dose of the vaccine, but only 31% have taken their second dose, the Health Department said. Except in the Nilgiris (58%) and Chennai (50%), no other districts of the state have touched the 50% when it comes to the second dose. 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 getting inoculated. The Health Department is also focusing on those who are yet to take the first dose of the vaccine, it said.
Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian told IANS, "After the number of new COVID-19 cases has declined 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."
On Friday, November 5, the Health Minister said that the eighth edition of the mass COVID-19 vaccination camp conducted in Tamil Nadu, scheduled for Saturday, would be postponed to November 14. "It was announced that the eighth mega vaccination camp would be held on November 6. But doctors, nurses and members of the medical fraternity unanimously made a request (to the government) that tomorrow's camp be postponed to next week in view of festival holidays", he said, adding that heavy rains were also predicted in the state this weekend.