The first consignment of 4,33,500 doses of Covishield vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, will be reaching the State soon. The Centre has officially communicated the same to the State, Health Minister K.K. Shylaja said in a statement here on Tuesday.
The regional vaccine stores at Thiruvananthapuram will receive 1,34,000 doses, Ernakulam 1,80,000 doses, and Kozhikode 1,19,500 doses. The Centre has informed that 1,100 doses of the vaccine from the consignment reaching Kozhikode will have to be distributed in Mahe.
Special arrangements
Ms. Shylaja said special arrangements had been made so that the vaccine was taken to the regional stores maintaining cold chain conditions.
Senior health officials said the vaccine would be administrated amongst health-care workers in such a manner that a second dose of the vaccine to be delivered after 28 days of the first dose would be reserved first. This meant that only half as many number of health-care workers as vaccine doses available would be vaccinated, at least until more vaccine consignments reached the State.
COVID-19 vaccination is being launched nationwide on January 16 and the vaccination will take place at 133 sites across the State.
A total of 3,62,870 health workers have registered for vaccination in the first phase.
They include 1,70,259 health-care workers in the public sector and 1,92,611 in the private sector.
