Amid Kerala reporting a spike in the number of daily Covid-19 infections, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday said restrictions will be strengthened in micro-containment regions. He further said that the state has the capacity to administer one crore vaccines per month and that he will approach the Centre seeking more vaccines.
"Currently, we can administer 25 lakh dose vaccines per week that means we can give one crore vaccines per month. We will approach the union government seeking more vaccines for the state," Vijayan said in a release.
His comments come in the backdrop of Kerala health minister Veena George stating that the state is running out of its Covid-19 vaccine stock.
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"Two days ago, our vaccine stock was zero. The Central government then gave us nine lakh doses the day before yesterday. We will again run out of stocks tomorrow (Saturday). There will be no vaccine for the day after tomorrow," George told NDTV on Friday.
Kerala administered a record number of over 4.96 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccine on Friday, George said.
On July 24, the state had vaccinated 4.91 lakh people. The minister in a release said such record vaccination is possible only if the state gets enough supply of vaccines.
Thiruvananthapuram district recorded the highest number of jabs with 97,507 people getting the shot, while Thrissur, Ernakulam, Kozhikode and Kannur districts administered over 40,000 doses each.
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Meanwhile, at a Covid-19 evaluation meet, Vijayan directed officials to strengthen domestic tourism and not to create issues for tourists. "Vaccination facilities for fishermen community should also be increased," he said.
The health department said till now, 1,97,62,659 persons received vaccines in the state, of which 1,37,96,668 received the first dose and59,65,991 received both the doses.
It said 39.3 per cent of the population of the state received the first dose while 17 per cent received both the doses.
Kerala for the fourth day running recorded more than 20,000 fresh cases with the test positivity rate (TPR) rising to 13.61 per cent and 116 more people succumbing to Covid-19 on Friday.
With 20,772 fresh cases, the infection caseload in the state reached 33,70,137 and the 116 deaths pushed the total casualties to 16,701, a state government release said.
(With PTI inputs)
