Kerala CM announces free Covid vaccine for all in state

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan Saturday announced that his government would provide the Covid-19 vaccine to all people in the state free of cost.

“It is not known how many doses of vaccine would be available for distribution in the state. But the state will distribute the vaccine free of cost. No fee will be levied,’’ he said.

Kerala is the latest to announce free of cost Covid-19 vaccine for its people. States including Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh have already made a similar announcement.

The Chief Minister said the number of active cases is gradually coming down in the state. “There is a slight increase in daily covid-19 deaths. However, the test positivity rate is down to 10 per cent. If the local body elections do not trigger a fresh wave of infections, the present trend of decline will continue,” he said.
Kerala Saturday reported 5,949 cases from 56,690 samples tested in the last 24 hours. The number of total active cases stood at 60,029.