The vaccine against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) will be provided free of cost to the people of Kerala, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced on Saturday. “The government will bear all expenses. We are ready once the Union health ministry gets us enough ampoules,” he said adding preference will be given to frontline health workers.
The chief minister also said that the cases of the coronavirus disease are coming down and it was a big achievement to maintain low death rate in the state. It is below 0.5% against 1.3% of the national rate. Vijayan also urged people to exercise extreme caution and follow the Covid-19 protocol mandated by the government; otherwise, the situation would worsen further.
The state, which was among the worst-affected states, has reported 664,000 infections and the number of people succumbing to the disease has reached 2,594.
On Saturday, Kerala recorded 5,949 new Covid-19 cases, out of which as many as 47 were health workers, 83 had come from outside the state. While 5,173 others infected through contact and the source of infection of 646 people was not known. The number of fatalities in a day was at 32.
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The day also saw 5,268 people getting cured as the total recoveries rose to 6, 01,861 while the active cases stood at 60,029.