Key Points:
- The announcement came as the state saw 5,949 positive cases on Saturday.
- Kerala has now become the fourth state to announce free rollout of Covid-19 vaccine after Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Saturday that Covid-19 vaccine will be provided free of cost in the state.
The announcement came as the state saw 5,949 positive cases on Saturday after conducting 59,690 tests in the last 24 hours. As many as 5,268 were declared cured in the state, taking the total number of recoveries to 6,01,861, while there were 60,029 active cases.
Kerala has now become the fourth state to announce the free rollout of Covid-19 vaccine. Tami Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami had in October announced once the coronavirus vaccine is ready, it will be provided to all people of the state free of cost.
Madhya Pradesh had also announced free vaccination at the end of October. “Coronavirus vaccine preparation work is going on fast in India. As soon as the vaccine is ready, it will be made available to every citizen of Madhya Pradesh for free,” MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan had written on Twitter.
Apart from them, Assam and Puduchchery have already announced free of cost Covid vaccines for the people of their states. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has demanded free vaccine for all citizens across the country.
While the country is waiting with bated breath for a vaccine candidate to be approved, Dr Vinod Paul, member of Niti Aayog and the head of a panel advising the prime minister on the country’s efforts to produce and roll-out the inoculation, said that a decision regarding the vaccine will roll out in a matter of a few days.
At the moment, Pfizer, Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech have applied for market authorisation for their vaccines in the country.
“We have three applications today for the emergency use authorisation on sound principles. We have Pfizer, we have Bharat Biotech and we have Serum and they have not only met the deadline, they have overtaken the deadline,” said Paul.
On starting the process of imparting the vaccine, he added that the process would have to be regulated so that the neediest get the dosage first.
