Madurai: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami today launched the first phase of Covid vaccination drive across the State and said he and his family members too would get vaccinated. “Not only me but also my family members and all the people of the country will have to take the vaccine” he told reporters after launching the vaccination drive at the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) here. The vaccination drive was launched at 166 centres in Tamilnadu including government and private hospitals . The first shot of vaccination was administered to Dr K Senthil State president of Tamilnadu Government Doctors Association in the presence of Palaniswami Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and State Ministers after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the first phase of the pan-India roll out of the vaccination against coronavirus via video conferencing. The Chief Minister said both the vaccines–Covishield manufactured by the 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 the second vaccine shot will be administered and those who took the vaccine should be very careful for the next 42 days after which immunity against coronavirus will develop. When asked about some States expressing apprehensions about the use of Covaxin he said the permission to the vaccine was given by the Central government after detailed studies. “People may have some initial apprehension about the vaccine but when the doctors themselves come forward to take the shot peoples views will undergo a change” he added. Palaniswami said the State had received 556500 doses of vaccines including 536500 doses of Covishield and 20000 doses of Covaxin. He said the vaccines would be administered to healthcare workers as per the guidelines and six lakh of them had been identified in the first phase. Palaniswami said he was very happy that India was able to develop vaccines for the coronavirus which the entire world was looking forward to and lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking initiatives towards this. The Chief Minister appealed to the people to trust the indigenously manufactured vaccine and said the government has given approval only after proper clinical trials and hence there was no need for any unnecessary worry. Replying to a question Palaniswami said the State government would consider regularising about 12000 coronavirus frontline workers. In Chennai the vaccination was launched at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital and its Dean Therani Rajan took the first vaccine jab.

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