Centre gives importance to COVID situation in Kerala; vaccination in state to begin on Saturday itself

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The central government has given due consideration to the COVID situation in Kerala. Earlier, the state government had demanded that Kerala should be given priority due to the increase in the number of COVID cases. It had also requested the Centre to provide five lakh vaccine doses in the first phase of the vaccination drive. In response to this request, the central government has provided more than 4.3 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine to the state.

State Health Minister KK Shailaja said that the central government has officially informed about this. Thiruvananthapuram will receive 1,34,000 doses of the vaccine, while Ernakulam and Kozhikode will receive 1,80,000 and 1,19.500 doses respectively. The vaccine will be stored at the Regional vaccine centers in these districts from where it would be distributed to 133 centers across the state. KK Shailaja said arrangements have been made to deliver the vaccine to designated centers in the state.