Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami Saturday said he too will get a vaccine shot against the Coronavirus.
Launching the Covid-19 vaccination drive in the state at Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai, Palaniswami told reporters that he too will get vaccinated against Coronavirus and added that the State had received 556,500 doses of vaccines — 536,500 doses of Covishield and 20,000 doses of Covaxin.
Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar and others were also present at the hospital.
The first vaccine shot was given to K. Senthil, State President of Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association.
Both the vaccines — Covishield, manufactured by Serum Institute of India and Covaxin developed and manufactured by Bharat Biotech — will be used in the state.
Palaniswami said 28 days after the first shot, a second vaccine dose will be administered and one has to be very careful for the next 42 days after which immunity against coronavirus will develop.
When pointed out some states not using Covaxin, Palaniswami said the permission to the vaccine was given by the central government after detailed studies.
Palaniswami said people may have some initial apprehension about the vaccine but when the doctors themselves come forward to take the shot people’s views would undergo a change.
The Chief Minister also said the government would consider regularising the about 12,000 coronavirus frontline workers.
At the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, its Dean Therani Rajan took the first vaccine jab.
“I had opted for Covaxin to create confidence in the people as the number of people who had registered for this vaccine was less as compared to Covishield,” Rajan told IANS.
He said 52 persons had registered for Covishield while it was 30 for Covaxin.
“Except for the slight pain when the needle poked the skin, I have no other problem,” Rajan said.
In Tamil Nadu, the immunization exercise will be performed at 166 centres — government and private hospitals.
At Apollo Hospitals here, the Chairman of the Apollo Hospitals Pratap C. Reddy got himself vaccinated. The hospital is one of the vaccination centres in the state.
A total of 100 people will be vaccinated at each centre in the coming days.
Till Friday, a total of 8,29,573 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the state. A total of 12,251 persons have lost their lives due to the virus.
IANS