Tamil Nadu administered 28,36,776 (28.36 lakh) vaccines within 12 hours in a mega vaccination drive held on September 12, Sunday. The vaccination camp was held from 7 am to 7 pm across the state on Sunday, in an attempt to boost COVID-19 immunisation in the state. Among the districts,
Chennai recorded the highest vaccinations with a total of 1.8 lakh people administered vaccines (both first and second dose). Coimbatore clocked an impressive number with the district administration managing to administer 1,51,685 (1.51 lakh) vaccines, which included the first and second doses, by 3 pm on Sunday.
Other districts which did well included Tiruppur (99,752) and Thanjavur (90,387). The single vaccine coverage is an achievement for Tamil Nadu as the state had earlier recorded the lowest percentage of people above 60 years of age who had been vaccinated. A recent survey by Observer Research Foundation (ORF) showed that out of every 1,000 people aged 60 plus in TN, the state had only managed to vaccinate 559 people. This is well below the national average of 947.3 and is the lowest among all 29 states and seven Union Territories.
Explaining the poor numbers, Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan had said that initial vaccine hesitancy had led to the state’s percentages dropping. “In the first four months of the vaccination drive, Tamil Nadu saw a high vaccine hesitancy among the population. Added to this was the death of actor Vivek, which was a big blow to our efforts to create awareness about getting immunised against COVID-19,” Radhakrishnan explained.
Tamil Nadu was only vaccinating anywhere from 5 lakh to 15 lakh people every month between January and April 2021. “But things picked up during the second wave, with more people opting to take vaccines,” Radhakrishnan said, adding that in August 2021, the state administered over 85 lakh doses. According to reports, nearly 96% of vaccine stock allocated to government centres were administered in August, when the state received 57 lakh vaccine doses from the Union government.