Chennai: Among all the COVID-19 deaths reported in the state-run hospitals in the past two months nearly 90% of the deaths were among unvaccinated people in Tamil Nadu, said Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan on Sunday. He said, even the majority of the patients who require treatment in ICUs did not receive their vaccinations.
According to a report on PTI, the health secretary after inspecting the fourth mega vaccination camp in Chennai told the reporters that the western districts of Tamil Nadu, which was the worst affected during the second COVID-19 wave, have started to show a downward trend in the number of COVID-19 cases.
However, Radhakrishnan insisted the people get vaccinations and said, 90% of the deaths in the past two months due to COVID-19 took place among people who did not even take their first dose of COVID-19 vaccination.
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He said, " vaccines have become the primary strategy to combat COVID-19. Even the people requiring ICU during treatment of COVID-19 is prevalent among the unvaccinated people".
As per an analysis of COVID-19 deaths in GH, the Health Secretary said, 7.4 % of COVID-19 deaths in the last two months were among people who took their first dose of the vaccine while 3.6% people succumbed even after receiving both the vaccine doses.
He said that the virus infection was severe among the people who did not get their vaccination while the people who died even after two shots not only had COVID-19 but also other health complications.
As part of the fourth mega vaccination drive held on Sunday, Tamil Nadu vaccinated 17.19 lakh people. The state government earlier held the mega vaccination drives on September 12, 19, and 26.
On Sunday, Tamil Nadu reported 1,531 new COVID-19 cases and 23 deaths in the past 24 hours. The state also witnessed 1,582 people recovering from COVID-19.