Actor-Comedian Vivekh took COVID-19 vaccine in the Government Omandurar hospital in Chennai on Thursday. After taking the vaccine, the actor urged people who are eligible, to avail themselves of the COVID-19 vaccines.
Speaking to the media, Vivekh said that he chose to get vaccinated to help dispel rumours around the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine and to inform people that vaccination is to keep us safe. “The public safety measures to keep ourselves safe (from coronavirus) is wearing masks, washing hands and maintaining adequate physical distancing. The medical way to protect ourselves is this vaccine. You might be taking Siddha medicines, Ayurvedic medicines, Vitamin-C, Zinc tablets etc. This is all fine. But these are added measures. The vaccine is the only thing that can save your life. If you ask me if people who are vaccinated don’t get COVID-19, it is not like that. Even if COVID-19 hits you, there won’t be death,” he said.
Taking help of a common analogy, Vivekh said, “This is like saying you have insurance for a bike and hence you won’t meet with an accident. Even if you have insurance, you can ensure safety only if you drive responsibly. Like that, even if we get vaccinated, we should stay inside our public safety measures.”
Given that the daily cases in Tamil Nadu touched an all-time high of 7,819 cases on Wednesday, State Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan said that the government is using social influencers like actor Vivekh to spread awareness about the importance of vaccination. He also said that the bed occupancy in Tamil Nadu is at 10% at present and the occupancy rate in Chennai is 20%.
“We should not panic. We should understand that our mortality rate has reduced to 1.35% and hence we should make use of the vaccination offered. This is a natural disaster and only masks will help us break the chain. Hence it should be followed scrupulously...People in cities like Chennai and Coimbatore have expressed difficulties in finding beds. We have set up a control room at the DME office to guide the people who come to the screening centres to hospitals (where vacancy is there),” he said. He added that the government is in the process of adding more beds for COVID-19 in private hospitals too.
Tamil Nadu also reported 25 deaths due to COVID-19 on Wednesday. Of the 7,819 new cases reported, 2,564 cases are from Chennai and 772 cases are from Chengalapattu. Coimbatore reported 540 new cases on Wednesday. The number of samples tested on Wednesday stood at 97,668.