THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Over 30,000 people took the booster dose of the Covid vaccine on the first day. The third dose was made available to people above 60 years and health workers from Monday, in the wake of the Covid surge.
As many as 19,549 health workers, 2,635 Covid frontline workers and 8,711 senior citizens with co-morbidities took the vaccine. Thiruvananthapuram topped the list with 6,455 jabs, followed by Thrissur (5,327) and Kollam (3,184).
Health Minister Veena George said that 5,36,582 (35 per cent) children, in the age group of 15 and 18 years, have taken the first dose of the Covid vaccine so far. Over 51,000 children took the vaccine on Monday.
17 new Omicron cases in state
A total of 17 people tested positive for the Omicron variant of Covid in the state on Monday. Of them, 13 came from low-risk countries while four came from high-risk countries.
The state has reported 345 Omicron cases in the district, so far. Of them, 231 came from low-risk countries and 78 from high-risk countries. A total of 34 people contracted the virus through local transmission and two infected persons returned from other states.
Health dept prepares multi-model Action plan
T’Puram: Health Minister Veena George said the department has prepared a multi-model action plan to deal with the surge in Covid cases. The plan will focus on parameters such as hospital admissions, ICU admissions and number of patients to augment the basic infrastructure in hospitals, surveillance mechanism, testing strategy and oxygen stock. The action plan is envisaged in three stages corresponding to the increase in the number of patients.