97% of elderly people have immunity against corona: Minister M. Subramaniam

Tamil Nadu= : Public Health Minister M. Subramanian said 97 per cent of the elderly have developed immunity against corona.

The Treatment Guidelines for Complicated Cases Training Seminar was held at the Directorate of Public Health and Immunization at Teynampet TMS campus in Chennai on Wednesday. Minister M. Subramanian, who inaugurated it, later told reporters:

Various measures are being taken to reduce maternal mortality and infant mortality in Tamil Nadu. The maternal mortality rate was 90.5 per lakh in 2021-22. It has come down to 52 in 2022-23, 45.5 in 2023-24 and 39.4 last year. Various measures are being taken to bring maternal deaths to zero.

This seminar is one of them. Officials from various levels, including district health officers, city and town officials, district-level obstetricians and secondary medical officers, will participate in the two-day seminar.

Talking about infant mortality rate, an average of 10.2 infants died per 1,000 live births in 2021-22. This rate has come down to 8.2 in 2023-24 and 7.7 last year. Steps are being taken to further reduce this rate.

Corona infection has been a topic of discussion for the last one month. 19 samples from Tamil Nadu were sent to the Virology Laboratory in Pune and the Omicron variant was found in them. That type of corona is not virulent. It has been scientifically proven that it is not life-threatening at large. No one should panic about corona. Also, it is necessary for the elderly, people with weak immune systems, pregnant women and people with co-morbidities to wear masks when gathering in public places. People infected with corona have problems like cough, cold and fever and they become normal within 3 days.

A study was conducted on 1,214 elderly people on their immunity against coronavirus. He said that 97 percent of these people were found to have immunity against coronavirus.