Kerala govt to procure 1 cr COVID-19 vaccine doses for those over 18 yrs : Kerala News

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday announced that the State Government has decided to order one crore vaccine doses while calling for a change in the new vaccine policy and pricing. Addressing a press conference here this evening, the CM said the Cabinet meeting held today has decided to give free vaccination to those in the 18-45 age group. As per the recommendation of the expert committee headed by the Chief Secretary, the government will buy 1 crore vaccine doses for the next three months (May to July), he said. He said "70 lakh doses of Covishield will be procured from Serum Institute at a cost of Rs 294 crores and 30 lakh doses of Covaxin from Bharat Biotech at Rs 189 crores.

The price of the vaccine will be subject to revision based on court orders, if any." The CM also came down heavily for the new vaccine policy and called on the central government to take immediate steps to change it. "The goal of the state government is to ensure free vaccination for all. As a result of the new vaccination policy of the Central Government, states have to buy vaccines from manufacturers." He said "We have already asked the Centre to change this policy and provide free vaccines to all but so far; no positive action has been taken. The Central Government has given permission to two vaccine manufacturers in the country to charge different prices from the Central Government and the States."

"This policy should also be amended. The Centre should ensure that the states get the vaccine at the same price as the Centre." "The disease is spreading at a large scale. Today''s review meeting has decided to enforce more restrictions but a full lockdown will be considered only as a last resort." "The government will ensure the availability of medical oxygen. Kasargod is facing difficulties in sourcing oxygen from Karnataka. This has been brought to the notice of the Karnataka Chief Secretary as this is happening even as Kerala is supplying oxygen from Palakkad to Karnataka." "The stock of liquefied medical oxygen is now adequate for the needs of the state but our demand is likely to increase significantly due to the extreme spread of Covid. Therefore, the Cabinet has decided to give only surplus medical oxygen to others. It was also decided to inform the Government of its position in the pending cases in the Supreme Court and the High Court", he added.

The test positivity rate has increased drastically in some districts and taluks. It''s as high as 50% in some places. All possible steps will be taken to bring it down. The involvement of ward level committees will also be strengthened. As the number of patients is increasing, arrangements are being made on an emergency basis to avoid a situation as seen in other places. As part of this, information on the availability of ventilators, ICU beds and other beds in public and private hospitals in each district will be updated every four hours to ensure better utilisation of facilities.