Kerala facing scarcity of Covishield vaccine, says health minister

A day after Kerala's overall COVID-19 cases crossed the 41 lakh mark, state Health Minister Veena George on Friday said the Covishield vaccine stock is completely over in at least six districts and the government has asked for more vaccine doses from the Centre.

The districts- Kollam, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Kozhikode and Kannur- are facing the shortage and only 1.4 lakh doses are remaining in the state's reserve, she said. However, all districts have limited stock of Covaxin, the minister said. "We have already requested the Centre to provide more doses of vaccine at the earliest," George said here in a statement.

Pointing out that many people are reluctant to take Covaxin, she said there is no need to worry about receiving the country's indigenous jab and both vaccines are effective as well as safe.

Kerala's overall Covid cases breached 41 lakh as its consistently high daily numbers showed no signs of a let-up, with the state once again witnessing over 30,000 new infections yesterday. 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.