District Collectors in Tamil Nadu have begun enforcing COVID-19 protocols in their districts after a marginal increase in the number of infected persons. State Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan in a letter to the District Collectors on Thursday, May 26, said that the rise in COVID-19 cases in Chennai and several other parts of the state indicates that immunity levels are falling. He also mentioned that this would lead to people becoming susceptible to variants, sub-variants and lineages of the coronavirus.
The Health Department is worried that apart from institutional clusters like that in IIT Madras and Anna University, family clusters are also developing in Chennai and the adjoining districts of Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu and Tiruvallur. The District Collectors have asked the local level officers, including health officials, to be vigilant and check the infection from spreading. The district administration has also urged the government and private hospitals to conduct checks on people with comorbidities and the elderly, while the police have been directed to ensure stringent action is taken against those not wearing masks.
The Health Department in a statement said that as of Thursday, 43 lakh eligible people in the state were yet to take the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine while 1.22 crore people had not taken their second dose. As many as 93.74% of people in the state have received their first vaccine dose while 82.55% have taken their second dose.
Meanwhile, the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 193.11 crore on Friday, May 27, the Union Health Ministry said. More than 12 lakh vaccine doses were administered till 7 pm, it said.
The daily vaccination tally is expected to increase with the compilation of final reports for the day by late night.
A total of 59,794 precaution doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered to those aged 18-59 years till 7 pm on Friday, taking the total number of precaution doses given in this age-group to 20,80,089 so far, according to the Health Ministry data.
Till 7 pm, 3.36 crore children in the age group of 12-14 years and 5.93 crore adolescents in the age group of 15-18 have been administered the first dose, it showed.