Tamil Nadu to supply free Covid-19 vaccines to public once available

Move follows similar initiative BJP Manifesto for Bihar polls

The Tamil Nadu government has decided to supply covid vaccines for free to the public, once they are made available, and is expected to shoulder the entire cost.

On Thursday, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said, "Once the Covid-19 vaccine is developed, it will be administered free to the people of the state".

His comments come on the heels of the BJP Manifesto for the Bihar election, which states that as soon as the Covid-19 vaccine is produced on a mass scale, every person in Bihar will get it for free. This is the first promise mentioned in BJP poll manifesto, Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at the launch of the document for the Bihar polls.

On Thursday, Tamil Nadu's Covid-19 tally crossed 700,000 with 3,077 new cases reported in the last 24 hours. Of the total new cases, 833 were from Chennai. The State Health Department said 79,821 persons were tested. Over 9 million people have been tested so far. While 4,314 patients were discharged. 45 succumbed to the disease. The total number of cases in the state now stands at 700,193. While 655,170 patients have been cured and discharged, 10,825 have lost their lives.

 

On Wednesday, Tamil Nadu reported 3,086 new Covid-19, of which 845 are from Chennai. 

The state is one of the frontrunners in testing. On Wednesday alone, 80,348 persons were tested, whie 4,301 patients were discharged and 39 patients died.

The total number of cases in the State as on Wednesday stood at 6,97,116, while 6,50,856 were discharged till that day. There have been 10,780 deaths in the state so far.