Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan seeks 50 lakh additional doses of COVID vaccine

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 12: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday sought an additional 50 lakh doses of COVID vaccine from the Centre, saying that the state had sufficient stocks only for the next three days.

He put forward this request in a letter to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and said the shortage has been brought to the notice of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare by the Chief Secretary, as well as Principal Secretary, Health.

"So far the state has received 56,84,360 doses of COVID vaccine, including 54,40,740 of Covishield and 2,43,620 of Covaxin and we have administered48,24,505 doses till April 11. The stock which is left with us is sufficient for conducting vaccination for the next three days only," he said.

He requested Vardhan to allot an additional 50 lakh doses of vaccine in the next couple of days, so that the vaccination programme of Kerala proceeds uninterrupted. "We are yet to get any additional supply of COVID vaccine," Vijayan said.

In his letter, the chief minister said the state has strengthened the surveillance and prevention systems to ensure that COVID protocol is being adhered to. He also pointed out that Kerala has been administering two lakh doses per day and planned to increase it to 2.5 to three lakh doses per day.

The health department had earlier in the day said there are 1,826 vaccination centres across the state, including 1,402 in government hospitals and 424 in private hospitals. On Monday, the state reported 5,692 COVID-19 cases and 11 related deaths.