Centre promises 1.10 cr vaccine doses to Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 16 (IANS) Visiting Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya who held a closed door meeting with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his team of health experts here on Monday, has promised to supply around 1.10 crore vaccine doses to the state before the end of next month.

Vijayan raised the issue of vaccine shortage being faced by the state and wished to get over a crore of doses in phases before the end of September and to this, Mandaviya promised that they will do the needful.

According to sources in the know of things, Mandaviya expressed happiness in the way Kerala has been managing vaccines without any wastage.

He also appreciated the way Kerala has been able to keep the death rate very low.

In his tweet Mandaviya said that he had an intensive meeting with Vijayan and State Health Minister Veena George and other state officials.

"Central Govt allocates Rs 267.35 crore to Kerala under Emergency COVID Response Package II. It will strengthen state's health infrastructure & effectively manage Covid-19. Additionally, Rs 1 crore will be made available to each district of Kerala for creating medicine pool".

Union Health secretary Rajesh Bhushan pointed out that the need of the hour for Kerala is to maintain more caution as the festival season of Onam is round the corner. He also said that contact tracing in the state has to be effectively strengthened.

Mandaviya arrived in the state around noon and after the meeting with Vijayan, paid a visit to the state run Medical College hospital, here and is scheduled to return to Delhi later in the night.