Thiruvananthapuram: The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines for the initial inoculation drive in Kerala arrived in a flight on Wednesday and within hours authorities started distributing it to the district headquarters.
Each vial of Covaxin being supplied to Kerala contains 20 doses and a person should take two doses within a month.
The vaccination of health workers will begin at 9am on Saturday at 133 centres in the state. In each centre about 100 people will be vaccinated in a day in the order of registration.
Details about the vaccination centre and the time for vaccination will be sent to health workers as a message to their mobile numbers on the eve of the day they have been allotted. They will have to produce identity poof for the vaccination.
The second dose of the vaccine will be given 28 days after the first.
A GoAir flight landed at the Nedumbassery airport at 10:45 am on Wednesday with the vaccine vials meant for Ernakulam and Kozhikode regional centres. The vaccine cargo for Kozhikode was sent by road.
Another flight arrived at Thiruvananthapuram at 6 pm with the vaccine for the southern region.
PM to inaugurate vaccination programme
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the country's long-awaited COVID vaccination programme.
The prime minister will address via video-conferencing all those who arrive at the various vaccination centres in different states. The CoWIN digital platform developed for the vaccination programme will also be inaugurated.
4.34 lakh doses
Kerala received 4,33,500 doses of Covishield vaccine from the Pune-based Serum Institute on Wednesday. Most of the doses were for the Ernakulam district, while the least was for Kasargod.
While 1,80,000 doses were sent to the Regional vaccine store at Ernakulam, 1,19,500 doses were sent to Kozhikode Regional and 1,34,000 doses to Thiruvananthapuram regional vaccine centre, a press release from state Health Minister K K Shailaja's office said.
Of the total vaccine received, 1,100 doses would be sent to Mahe, which is an enclave of Puducherry and lies between Kozhikode and Kannur districts.
About 14 lakh auto-disabled syringes for the vaccination had arrived in the state capital recently.
As many as 3,68,866 people have registered for the vaccination drive, which will commence from January 16.
