The first flight carrying Covid vaccines for the first phase of vaccination in Kerala, has arrived at the Cochin International airport at 10.45 am on Wednesday. The flight, which arrived from Pune, had vaccine doses for Kochi and Kozhikode. The vaccine doses were transferred to the Regional Vaccine Store at General Hospital, Ernakulam, while the boxes that have been earmarked for the Kozhikode region will be transported via road.
The state, which was the first state in the country to report the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, will receive 4,33,500 doses of Covishield vaccine, which has been developed by UK based Oxford University and pharma major AstraZeneca and is being manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India.
The vaccine for Thiruvananthapuram is scheduled to arrive on an Indigo flight at around 6 pm on Wednesday. The vaccine will be distributed from Thiruvananthapuram to Alappuzha, Kollam, Pathanamthitta districts, from Kochi to Ernakulam, Idukki, Kottayam, Palakkad and Thrissur districts and from Kozhikode to Kannur, Kasaragod, Malappuram and Wayanad.
The vaccination drive is slotted to start on Saturday. The vaccine will be given to health workers in the first phase. It is said that a total of 3,62,875 health workers have registered for vaccination in the first phase. A hundred people will be vaccinated in a day at the 133 vaccination centres that have set up as part of the vaccination drive.
