Kerala govt urges Centre to provide more coronavirus vaccine doses
In a letter to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja has urged the Centre to provide the state with more doses of Covid-19 vaccine and sought permission for the health workers, who missed the opportunity earlier, to register again to receive the shot.
The Kerala government has urged the Centre to provide the state with more doses of Covid-19 vaccine for third priority group-aged above 50 years.
It also sought permission for the health workers, who missed the opportunity earlier, to register again to receive the shot.
In a letter to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja said "though most of the health workers in the southern state registered within the stipulated time but a few of them could not, so, they should be given a chance to register again."
More doses of vaccine should be provided for the vaccination of the third priority group-those aged above 50 years, the minister said.
Pointing out that Kerala has the highest elderly population in the country, Shailaja wanted the Health Ministry to issue immediate guidelines on the registration and vaccination of the third priority group and provide adequate additional doses of vaccine for them.
Over 3 lakh health workers have recieved first Covid-19 vaccine till now
So far, 3,36,327 (94 per cent of the revised target) health workers and 57,658 frontline fighters (38 per cent) have received the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine in the state.
In addition,23,707 health workers have got the second dose also, she said.
Noting that Kerala had taken effective steps to check the widespread of the pandemic, Shailaja said the recent ICMR Zero Surveillance study has found that only very few people in the state were infected by the viral infection.
Well-coordinated activities and interventions had helped the southern state to put up a good fight against the disease, she added in the letter.
Kerala on Saturday registered 4,650 new COVID-19 cases and 13 related deaths taking the total number of those affected in the state by the deadly virus to 10.30 lakh.
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