Provide 10 mn Covid-19 vaccine doses to Tamil Nadu, Stalin tells Modi

Tamil Nadu has not received COVID-19

vaccines proportionate to its population, resulting in its acute shortage, Chief Minister M K Stalin told Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday and sought a special allocation of one crore vaccine doses to correct the 'imbalance.'

Till July 8, 2021, Tamil Nadu received only 29,18,110 vaccine doses from the Centre for people in the 18-44 years category and 1,30,08,440 for the above 45 years category.

As the allocation of vaccines is very inadequate, the state is finding it extremely difficult to meet the huge demand for vaccination throughout Tamil Nadu, Stalin said in a letter to Modi.

"The success of my government's efforts to eliminate vaccine hesitancy and make the vaccination drive a mass movement now squarely rests on the doses made available to us."

The union health ministry apprised the Supreme Court that states have been allocated vaccines in proportion to the population between 18 and 44 years of age to ensure equitable distribution, he said.

However, Tamil Nadu has not received vaccines proportionate to its population size, resulting in the current acute shortage of vaccines, he said.

"The number of vaccine doses provided to our state is only 302 per thousand eligible population.

This is very low when compared to the vaccine doses made available to comparable states like Gujarat, Karnataka and Rajasthan, which are at 533, 493 and 446 respectively."

Requesting the Prime Minister's immediate personal intervention to correct the 'imbalance' in vaccine allocation for Tamil Nadu, he sought a "special allocation of one crore vaccine doses, so that we are able to vaccinate the targeted population in the shortest possible time.