Covid-19: Five lakh health workers to get priority shot in Tamil Nadu, 1 lakh in Chennai – Times of India

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu is gearing up to administer the Covid-19 vaccine from January and has started training 21,170 nurses as a first step.
The state is readying cold storage facilities at 27 government medical college hospitals, 303 other government hospitals, and 2,286 primary health centres that will be used to give vaccine shots to five lakh doctors, nurses, lab technicians, sanitary workers and pharmacists from government and private hospitals in the first phase. At least one lakh of them are from Chennai, which has around 7,000 healthcare establishments.
After healthcare professionals, others on the frontline personnel from the police, municipal administration, revenue and media besides the elderly and those with co-morbidities could be vaccinated, health secretary J Radhakrishnan said here on Thursday.
Since Tamil Nadu has a large population of the aged, efforts were on to get more vaccines allocated, he said after a virtual meeting with the Union health secretary.
District-level committees had been formed to prepare for the immunisation. The state already has 51 walk-in coolers and 2,685 secondary cold-chain points ready, said health department sources. The state has asked the Centre for 1,144 ice-lined refrigerators, 992 deep freezers, 10 refrigeration vaccine vehicles and 20 more walk-in coolers and freezers.
To cover its entire population, TN has identified 33,438 anganwadis and 11,146 health sub-centres too as possible vaccination sites.
On the threat of the new virus strain from the UK finding its way into the state, the health secretary said 37 people who had travelled to Tamil Nadu this week had been quarantined and one had tested positive. Three others who evaded Covid screening at Chennai Airport travelled to their homes in Thirunindravur, Tiruthani and Puducherry were traced and quarantined. All three, who claimed that they tested negative at Delhi airport, tested positive on Thursday.