CHENNAI: Chennai, A statement from the office of the state health minister on Saturday said that at least one dose of vaccine would be administered to the staff of schools and colleges till September 5.

More than 90 per cent of the teachers and non-teaching staff of schools and colleges in the state have been administered a minimum of one dose of vaccine.

The colleges and higher classes in schools are scheduled to reopen in Tamil Nadu from September 1 and the state health department and higher education and school education department do not want to take any risk regarding the vaccination of staff, both teaching and non-teaching, the statement said.
The state would also be administering vaccines for super senior students in schools, especially those in Class 12 and all the college students. Tamil Nadu Minister for Health, Ma Subramanian and state higher education minister, K. Ponmudi had on Saturday attended a vaccine drive for the college students.

The state has been conducting vaccination drives for targeted communities and this focused vaccination has yielded the desired results, the statements said. In the Pudukottai district, almost all the differently-abled persons were administered the vaccine while in the Ayilur district all the pregnant women were inoculated.

The health department stated that on Saturday itself, 4.7 lakh people took the vaccine across the state taking the daily tally to 2.9 crores in the government centres.

The state is expecting one crore doses of vaccines as a single allotment to become the overall top performer in the country. The officials are of the opinion that in the first four months of vaccination drive the allocation was poor to the state resulting in the poor performance in inoculating.

Ma Subramanian while speaking to IANS said, “We have received a special allocation of 22 lakh doses of vaccine for August and we are trying to get 1 crore doses as special allocation and this would take us to a higher level among the best performers as far as vaccination drives are concerned.

“We have administered vaccines to targeted communities like sportspersons, differently-abled people, lactating mothers, and pregnant women and the results have been up to what we had expected. With colleges and higher classes in schools reopening from September 1, we need more doses of vaccine and complete all those who would be in contact with the students.”