1.60 crore people to get the shots in phase-I: Tamil Nadu Minister

Talking to reporters at the ESI Hospital during a special camp as part of the dry run, he said it is being carried out to identify the problems and challenges of administering the vaccine.

PTI

January 02, 2021 / 19:17 IST

Tamil Nadu has taken steps to administer COVID-19 vaccine to 1.60 crore people across the state in the first phase, Health Minister Dr Vijayabhaskar said on Saturday.

Talking to reporters at the ESI Hospital during a special camp as part of the dry run, he said it is being carried out to identify the problems and challenges of administering the vaccine.

A total of 47,200 vaccine centres have been established and 21,200 health workers trained for the purpose, he said. At least 17 places in five districts have been identified for the trial run for which 425 workers have been trained, he said.

The vaccinated person has been asked to wait for 30 minutes for observation, he pointed out.

Six lakh health workers like doctors, nurses in 2,881 government hospitals and 35,403 private hospitals would be administered the vaccine in the first phase, he said.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

Show

1.60 crore people to get the shots in phase-I: Tamil Nadu Minister

Talking to reporters at the ESI Hospital during a special camp as part of the dry run, he said it is being carried out to identify the problems and challenges of administering the vaccine.

Related stories

Trending news