Kerela Cheif Minister Pinarayi Vijayan

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, on Saturday, said that people in Kerala would get COVID-19 vaccine for free. Vijayan announced the decision while addressing a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram. Kerala, which is one of the worst-affected states due to COVID-19, has till now reported more than 664,000 infections and 2,594 deaths.
The state government will bear all expenses of COVID-19 vaccines for its residents; we are ready with our distribution plans. We are waiting for the Union Health Ministry to provide us with COVID-19 vaccine shots. Frontline workers, health care officials and people with pre-conditions are on our priority list, said Vijayan.
Vijayan continued to say that the cases of the coronavirus disease are coming down and it was a big achievement for Kerala government to maintain low death rate in the state. While the death rate is below 0.5% in Kerala, it is 1.3% in the country. I strongly advise people to maintain social distancing and follow all COVID-19 related norms; if failed to do so, the situation might worsen, he added.

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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 citizens got infected through close contact with infected patients, the source of infection of 646 people was not known. The number of deaths in a day was at 32.