Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian will be meeting Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan in New Delhi on Friday with a team of officials, days after the state reported a shortage of vaccine stocks on Tuesday. The state Health Minister is expected to discuss the need for more vaccines to the state and start of MBBS admissions in AIIMS Madurai and 11 new Tamil Nadu medical colleges during the meet. A statement from Ma Subramanian’s office said that the state Health Minister will request the Union minister to release vaccine doses at the earliest for Tamil Nadu. The state immunisation department announced that vaccines are exhausted and fresh stocks are expected on July 11.
Subramanian said, "Earlier in February, during the regime of the AIADMK, Tamil Nadu had wasted 4 lakh doses of vaccines" and added that nurses used to open a vial even if there were four people for vaccination and the rest of the six doses would go to waste. Now they use up to 12 doses from a vial, which led to saving of 1.4 lakh doses of vaccine.
Talking to the media, Ma Subramanian said that the Union government assured that they will procure 75% of vaccines and provide them to the states. In this backdrop, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Stalin spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urged the Union government to allot more vaccines. “Now, the CM has instructed the Health Secretary and me to go to Delhi and meet the Union Health Minister for additional vaccine allocation,” he said.
Subramanian, according to the statement, will also be discussing with the Union Health Minister, the process of beginning admission to AIIMS, Madurai and the options available for temporary accommodation of medical students, as the college building construction is not complete.