THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The likelihood of Covid-19 vaccine shortage is threatening to upset the government’s ‘Crush the Curve’ campaign aimed at speeding up the vaccination drive.
At a time when the daily jabs have increased to around 2 lakh doses since election day on April 6, the state is left with just a little above 9 lakh doses.
“Mega camps started to ramp up vaccination may have to be suspended until fresh stocks of vaccines arrive. We hope the Centre will speed up fresh allotment,” said an officer privy to vaccine management.
He said the state will get five lakh new doses of Covishield between April 15 and 20.When many states reported vaccine shortage, Kerala was sitting comfortable with over 15 lakh doses with an assured supply of more, on April 5.
The average number of vaccinations per day at the time was around 1 lakh and only 23 per cent of the vulnerable population aged above 45 had received the first dose.
However, the state launched a mass vaccination campaign when more people started getting infected. As a result 6,72,364 people aged above 45 received their first dose in the five days after April 5.
If the momentum continues, the state will reach the milestone of administering 50 lakh doses (including over 5 lakh second doses) on Monday.
Thiruvananthapuram was ahead of the Ernakulam and Kozhikode regions in terms of vaccination. In the capital district, 5,54,561 doses of vaccines have been given so far.
The regional vaccine centre in Thiruvananthapuram had just 4,500 doses on April 10. The state administered 56,286 jabs on Sunday.
