Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala on Saturday reported another high of 26,685 Covid-19 cases with a test positivity rate of 20.35%, according to state health ministry data, and chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan sent another letter to the Prime Minister, requesting him to make vaccination free of cost in the present scenario.
Vijayan told reporters that the three-tier price mechanism for vaccines -- ₹150 for the Centre, ₹400 for state governments and ₹600 for private hospitals -- will lead to exploitation and weaken the fight against the pandemic. Citing some reports, he said ₹600 (equivalent to US$ 8) per shot is the highest in the world and the vaccine firm was distributing the same to neighbouring Bangladesh at half of the cost.
“I have written another letter to the Prime Minister citing these facts. Vaccine price is quite high, some studies show. We want the government to stick to its age-old policy of giving vaccine free of cost,” the CM said. He said he had a meeting with private hospital managements on Saturday and asked them to increase their bed capacity to the maximum.
“We will have to learn a lesson from the trauma of some of the states in north India. We have enough stock of oxygen, but we may need more beds. There is no need to panic, but we have to be vigilant,” he said, adding the weekend 48-hour lockdown-like curbs were successful.
{{/usCountry}}“We will have to learn a lesson from the trauma of some of the states in north India. We have enough stock of oxygen, but we may need more beds. There is no need to panic, but we have to be vigilant,” he said, adding the weekend 48-hour lockdown-like curbs were successful.
{{/usCountry}}“It is good that people responded well. We may have to tighten the restrictions further going by the caseload,” he said. Many busy roads and markets remained empty because permission was granted to only emergency services.
Meanwhile, for the third consecutive day caseload crossed 25,000 -- out of 1,31,155 tests, 26,685 were tested positive. The state also reported 25 fatalities taking the death toll to 5080. The active caseload reached 198,576. Among the infected, 75 are health workers and 30 policemen, according to the data released by the state health ministry.