THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government will organise a vaccination campaign from August 9 to 31. The campaign will be organized as part of increasing vaccination in the state. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in the Covid review meeting that this campaign aims to complete the vaccination for final year degree and PG students and LP and UP school teachers.

In addition to the vaccines available to the state government, more vaccines need to be made available to the private sector. As part of this, the state government will buy 20 lakh doses of vaccines and provide them to private hospitals at the same rate. The distribution will be based on the number of vaccines that can be given by private hospitals. In addition, vaccines purchased for commercial enterprises and public organizations can be used to vaccinate people in nearby areas by associating with private hospitals. Facilities for this can be provided with the participation of local self government institutions. The goal is to vaccinate as many people as possible as soon as possible. Vaccination for senior citizens will be completed by August 15. The first dose for those over 60 years of age will be completed. Bedridden patients will be vaccinated at home. Shops in malls have been permitted to open from August 11 on the same conditions stipulated for other outlets and after making all precautionary arrangements, the Kerala government said on Saturday.
In an order issued by the Disaster Management department of the state, persons have to be deployed at all entry points of malls to ensure COVID-19 protocols, like wearing of masks, use of hand sanitisers, temperature checks and social distancing, and other conditions are strictly followed before people enter the shops.