COVID-19 vaccination: Kerala inoculates over 4.5 lakh people on Saturday, highest in a day

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], July 25 (ANI): Kerala recorded its highest single-day COVID-19 vaccination with over 4.5 lakh people vaccinated on Saturday, Health Minister Veena George said.

At present, there are 1,522 vaccination centres in the state, including 1,380 centres at the government level and 142 centres at the private level. Kannur topped the list by administering vaccines to 59,374 people on Saturday. It was followed by Thrissur (53,841) and Kottayam (51,276).

With this, more than 16 lakh have been given the jab till now this week alone.

"By vaccinating 4,53,339 people on Saturday, Kerala has shown that it can vaccinate more than four lakh people per day and that it was the best state where vaccination was concerned," George said in a release.

Only about 2 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccines are in stock in the state, including the 38,860 doses of vaccines that arrived on Saturday. The state does not have enough stock to conduct vaccination on Sunday, the official said.

"If the Centre did not allot vaccines on Sunday, the ongoing vaccination drive in the state would be affected," she said.

The first dose of vaccination for health workers and front-line workers in the state has reached 100 per cent.

So far, a total of 1,83,89,973 people in the state have been vaccinated with one or two doses -- 1,28,23,869 were given the first dose and 55,66,104 were administered the second dose.

Based on the 2011 census, 38.39 per cent of the total population was given the first dose and 16.66 per cent the second dose. (ANI)