Corporation to increase number of vax centres in Chennai

CHENNAI: Greater Chennai Corporation is planning to increase the number of centres in the city providing Covid-19 vaccines. Corporation commissioner G Prakash said the civic body will soon rope in corporation-run schools for the vaccination drive.

The move will be in force in time for the second phase of Covid vaccination in which frontline workers such as the corporation's conservancy staff, police personnel and others will get the shot.

Prakash said the corporation had registered 1.5 lakh people for vaccinations in the first phase. As on Wednesday, the civic body had targetted 55,000 inoculations, but only 20,000 people got themselves vaccinated. "We are increasing the number of centres from 10 to 25 to 35 and eventually as many as needed. A district task force meeting was held to discuss all these details," Prakash said at a press meet on Wednesday. This was in response to queries on whether vaccination numbers were low due to a wait time of 30 minutes at centres.

At present, there are 47 vaccination centres, including ones in private hospitals, in the city's limits.

The civic body has been allotted 10 lakh doses of the Covid vaccines. "The immediate goal is to increase the number of people vaccinated every day to 10,000 and then 20,000. This is so that we can cover the entire vaccination process within six months," Prakash said. The process has been slow, he admitted, adding that as the drive was just starting out and it could not be expected to take off immediately.

The civic body is also spreading awareness that the vaccines are completely safe and that there had been no adverse cases so far among those that had been vaccinated, Prakash said. "In future we will be appointing some people as vaccine brand ambassadors," he added.