KOCHI: The first consignment of the Covid vaccine purchased by the Kerala government arrived at the Kochi airport on Monday afternoon.
The consignments comprising 3.5 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine bought directly from the Serum Institute, Pune, arrived at the Kochi airport at 12:30 pm.
The vaccines have been shifted to the warehouse of Kerala Medical Services Corporation at Manjummel in Kochi. The health department will later decide and allocate vaccines for each district, based on the requirement, an official release said.
Kerala had decided to purchase one crore dose of the vaccine directly from the manufacturers -- 70 lakh doses of Covishield and 30 lakh doses of Covaxin.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had in April announced Kerala's plans to purchase vaccines directly from the manufacturers as the state was planning an acute shortage of the vaccines. A high-level committee comprising the chief secretary, additional secretary (finance), and principal secretary (health) was formed to negotiate with the manufacturers.