A day after Kerala’s overall Covid-19 cases crossed the 4.1 million mark, state health minister Veena George on Friday said the state is facing vaccine shortage and the Covishield stock is completely over in at least six districts, following which the government has asked for more vaccine doses from the Centre.
The districts — Kollam, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Kozhikode and Kannur — are facing the shortage of Covishield and only 140,000 doses are remaining in the state’s reserve but all districts have limited stock of Covaxin, she said.
The southern state is eyeing to complete the vaccination of all those aged above 18 years this month itself, which requires more jabs, the minister said in a statement.
“The state is once again facing vaccine shortage. Almost all districts are suffering the scarcity. The Centre has been asked to provide more vaccine doses for the smooth continuation of the drive,” George said.
George said the state has achieved another target in the vaccine drive as 75% of people, aged above 18 years, have been given the first dose.
This would comprise 2,15,27,035 people of the total 30.58 million population of the state, she said, adding that of them, 27.74% people (79,60,935) had received the second dose also.
According to the estimated population of 2021, it is 60.81% and 22.49% respectively. With this, a total of 2,94,87,970 people have received either the first dose or both doses of vaccine. “Over 86 lakh (8.6 million) doses could be given in the month of August alone. The government is aiming to complete the vaccination of those aged above 18 years this month itself. This requires more vaccine doses,” the minister added.
Kerala’s overall Covid cases breached 4.1 million as its consistently high daily numbers showed no signs of a let-up, with the state once again witnessing over 30,000 new infections on Thursday.
The state, which recorded the country’s first coronavirus case in early 2020, reported 32,097 new COVID-19 infections and 188 deaths on Thursday, which pushed the total infection count to 41,22,133 and the fatalities to 21,149.
