COVID-19 : Kerala receives vaccine 'Covishield' in 2 batches

Kerala received the COVID-19 vaccine "Covishield" on Wednesday in two batches at Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram.

The first batch arrived at Kochi International Airport with 2.99 lakh doses in a GoAir G8 347 flight from Mumbai in the morning. While the second batch of Covishield arrived at the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport in the evening.

S Suhas, Ernakulam district collector told that the vaccine that arrived in Kochi will be distributed to six districts in the State.

"There are 25 boxes in this batch. In this, 10 boxes will go to Kozhikode and rest 15 boxes will be kept in the regional vaccine store at Ernakulam General Hospital. From here, it will go to the other four districts for supply," said S Suhas, Ernakulam district collector.

The second batch of Covishiled with 1,34,000 doses that arrived at Thiruvananthapuram will be distributed to Kollam, Alappuzha and Pathanamthitta districts of which 64,020 vaccines is for the state capital. Vaccines are being transferred to the lab, which is being monitored by Thiruvananthapuram District Collector Navjot Khosa.

Covishield and Covaxin, the two COVID-19 vaccines, which have received Emergency Use Authorisation (EAU), have been tested on thousands of people and side-effects are negligible, Dr VK Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, said on Tuesday and noted that the two "are safest of the vaccines".

The first phase of the COVID-19 vaccination drive is scheduled to start from January 16 onwards. Earlier, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had said the central government is having close collaboration with states and Union Territories for vaccine roll-out.

"All preparations are on track for vaccine roll-out from January 16," he had said.

( With inputs from ANI )