NEW DELHI, Dec 12: The people of Kerala will get the COVID-19 vaccine free of cost, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced on Saturday. “The government will bear all expenses. We are ready once the union health ministry gets us enough ampoules,” he said. The chief minister the first preference for vaccination in the state would be given to the frontline health workers.
The chief minister also said the cases of the coronavirus disease were coming down and it was a big achievement to maintain low death rate in the state. “It is below 0.5% against 1.3% of the national rate,” he said. Vijayan also urged people to exercise extreme caution and follow the Covid-19 protocol mandated by the government; otherwise, the situation would worsen further, he warned.
Kerala, which was among the worst-affected states, has reported 664,000 infections and the number of people succumbing to the disease have reached 2,594.
On Saturday, Kerala recorded 5,949 new Covid-19 cases, out of which as many as 47 were health workers, 83 had come from outside the state. While 5,173 others infected through contact and the source of infection of 646 people was not known. The number of fatalities in the day was at 32.
(Manas Dasgupta)