Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has written a letter to Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan seeking additional 50 lakh doses of COVID vaccine to the State in the next couple of days.
Stating that the State needs additional 50 lakh doses of COVID vaccine, so that the vaccination programme proceeds uninterrupted for successfully controlling the pandemic, the Chief Minister said “The stock which is left with us is sufficient for conducting vaccination for the next 3 days only.”
The CM said “Kerala is witnessing a rise in the number of COVID cases at present. We have further strengthened our surveillance and prevention systems. All steps are being taken to ensure that COVID protocol is being adhered to.”

“A crucial step to control, COVID spread is ensuring vaccination for maximum number of persons in the shortest time. To achieve this, we have made a 45 days action plan and have been successfully administering around 2 lakh doses per day, which will be further scaled to curb the rapid rise upto 2.5-3 lakh doses per day,” he explained.

Stating that 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, he said the State has administered 48,24,505 doses till April 11 2021.

This shortage of vaccine has been brought to the notice of Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare by the Chief Secretary as well as Principal Secretary, Health, Kerala, he added.