D.O of Requesting to Increase the Allocation of Vaccines to Tamil Nadu

 Text of the D.O. Letter No.800/CMO/2021, Dated 28.6.2021 of Thiru M.K. Stalin, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu addressed to the Hon’ble Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, requesting to increase the allocation of vaccines to Tamil Nadu and also increase the sub-allocation of vaccines for Government Institutions to 90% :

    At the outset, I would like to thank you for accepting our request on the Union Government procuring Covid vaccines centrally and issuing them free of cost to all States for all eligible beneficiaries above 18 years of age. This decision and my government’s continuous efforts to eliminate vaccine hesitancy and transform the vaccination drive into a people’s movement, have ensured that Tamil Nadu’s daily performance of vaccination has tripled during the current month.

   The availability of vaccines has emerged as the principal constraint in the last few weeks, after the above pick up in vaccination. This is particularly significant for us since our allotment so far has been one of the lowest among the States in the country in terms of doses per thousand population. I had written to you requesting an allocation of 1 crore doses to correct the inadequate allotment in the past. This has not been done and the incremental increase in allocation for June- July is just in line with the increases made available to other States, who had got higher allotment in the past and therefore have already vaccinated more people. Hence, I reiterate that earlier request and also would like to draw your attention to another issue which requires your immediate intervention.

Considering the above issues, I request that the following steps may be immediately undertaken by the Union Government to ensure that the available vaccine resources are put to the best use possible in the shortest time:

      a) Evaluate the vaccine doses allotted to various States so far, in terms of doses allotted per thousand population and ensure that necessary compensatory allocations are made to States who have been allotted lower number of doses per capita.

       b) Revise the inter-se allocation between the government and private institutions to 90:10 as against the current allocation of 75:25.