Lack of credible details on COVID vaccine jab adds to chaos in Tamil Nadu's Erode district

People have been suffering from a lack of access to reliable COVID-related information including vaccine availability and venues of fever camps.
Representational Image. (File | PTI)
Representational Image. (File | PTI)

ERODE: At a time when the district stands second in the State in terms of the COVID caseload, the absence of the district administration on social media platforms has come under severe criticism from various quarters.

People have been suffering from a lack of access to reliable COVID-related information including vaccine availability and venues of fever camps. Meanwhile, several districts including Chennai and Coimbatore, have been providing details on the number of tests, areas with high caseloads, among others.

While the district administration doesn't have an official handle, collector S Kathiravan was last active on social media two months ago. The case of the Erode City Corporation is no different.

As a result, many took to social media urging the Chief Minister and the Health Minister to usher in more transparency. "This will help people to know all the updates and announcements quickly and avoid all rumours," tweeted 'We Luv Erode', a Twitter page with around 2,500 followers, tagging the CM, ministers, and journalists.

A few of them have been tweeting using the hashtag, #ErodeNeedsVaccinationinfo, to press for their demand. The residents have also started a petition on change.org addressed to the Chief Minister, while the BJP and Congress also petitioned the Collector in this regard.

In a bid to address the information gap, a group of volunteers have created a Twitter page titled 'Erode & Tiruppur Vaccine Updates' to provide details of vaccination centres in each locality. However, many volunteers find it difficult to get the information from officials unless they visit the vaccination centres and screening camps directly, they said.

That said, there appears to be a catch-22 situation in publicising the data on vaccine availability.

While people have been running from pillar to post for getting the jabs risking infection, authorities fear putting the vaccine availability data in the public domain, as done in many other districts, may add to the chaos.

"As the vaccine stock is low, we made a conscious decision not to publicise the details to avoid the crowd. If we release the vaccination details, it will only lead to more crowding," said Minister for Housing S Muthusamy, who is in charge of COVID control measures in the district.

Residents have also been seeking data on a locality-wise break-up of the cases in the district. Although the district administration earlier released the data until the case count reached around 200, it stopped later. The Housing Minister said that data on the break-up of cases in each locality can be provided.  

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