“When the coronavirus vaccine is developed, it will be administered free of cost to the people of the state, with the government bearing all costs,” said Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami on Thursday, 22 October.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, too, announced that the poor people in the state would be given the vaccine free of cost.
The announcements by the two states comes on the same day Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman released the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) poll manifesto for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections.
Taking to Twitter, Chouhan on Thursday said:
“Since the trials of COVID-19 vaccine have begun in the country, talks were on among the poor sections of the society whether they will be able to afford it. Let me make it clear that the vaccine in Madhya Pradesh will be provided free of cost to all poor people of the state. We will win this battle.”
While unveiling the Bihar Election manifesto in Patna, Sitharaman on Thursday had said, “As and when the vaccine candidates that are currently under various levels of trials in the country get scientific clearances and a go-ahead for production, the people of Bihar will get vaccination for free once the production in India is on a large scale. This is our first poll promise as mentioned in the manifesto.”
Cases in Chennai Dipping
The announcement from the Tamil Nadu CM comes at a time when the daily number of COVID-19 cases in Chennai are dipping below 100. On Wednesday, findings of a serosurvey revealed that nearly one-third of the city’s population has been exposed to the virus.
The Chennai Corporation stated that 6,389 samples were collected randomly across the city, of which 2,062 tested positive for IgG antibodies, which is about 32.3 per cent of the population.
The serosurvey is being conducted to detect the transmission of coronavirus in the society. These population-based surveys are done by performing blood tests on individuals to check if they have developed antibodies to the infection. The detailed results with ward-wise figures will be announced soon.
The first phase of the survey, was conducted in mid-July and early-August with a sample size of around 12,000. The findings had revealed on 1 September that one-fifth of the population, as in 21.5 percent of the people, had been exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 infection, that causes COVID-19.
On Wednesday, 3,086 coronavirus cases were reported in the state, of which 845 cases were from Chennai.
The total tally of cases in the state is 6,97,116, and 6,50,856 have been discharged and 10,780 deaths reported so far.
A few months back, Chennai was recording over 3,000 cases everyday which has come down to less than 1,000 cases daily for the past few weeks. However, with the festive season approaching, experts have warned that COVID protocols need to be strictly followed to curb the spread of the virus. The Tamil Nadu government has announced new relaxations such as all shops, hotels, tea stalls, restaurants, commercial complexes located in non-containment zones can remain open till 10 pm, to aid economic activity during the festive season.
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