Kerala to get first consignment of over 400,000 vaccines on January 13

Kerala will receive the first consignment of doses of Covishield on Wednesday from the Pune-based Serum Institute of India

Kerala will receive the first consignment of over 4.33 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine to combat COVID-19 on Wednesday from the Pune-based Serum Institute of India, the state government said.

The first flight carryingthe vaccine is expected to reach Kochi's Nedumbassery airport at 2 pm on Wednesday and by 6 pm, another set will reach the Thiruvananthapuram airport,sources said.

Health authorities have made all arrangements to receive the vaccines and dispatch them to the centres concerned.

Of the 4,33,500 lakh vaccine doses, 1,100 would be sent to Mahe, which is an enclave of Puducherry and lies between Kozhikode and Kannur districts, National Health Mission sources told PTI.

The vaccine will be stored in the Regional vaccine centres at Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikodefrom where it would be distributed to 133 centres across the state.

"Thiruvananthapuram will receive 1,34,000 doses of the vaccine, while Ernakulam and Kozhikode willreceive1,80,000 and 1,19.500 doses respectively," Health Minister KK Shailaja said in a release.

So far, 3,62,870 people have registered themselves for the vaccination,which will commence from January 16.