Thiruvananthapuram: As part of confidence-building measures among the people on the
Covid-19 vaccine, health minister
K K Shailaja, along with revenue minister
E Chandrashekaran, took the
vaccine at Medical College Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday. Meanwhile, minister of ports and museums
Kadannappally Ramachandran got the shot from a hospital in his home district, Kannur.
Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan is likely to take the vaccine on Wednesday. All the cabinet ministers have decided to take the Covid-19 vaccine in the state in the coming days, it is learnt.
The health minister said there is tremendous response to the Covid-19 vaccine from the general public. Even though there are some technical glitches in getting registered for the vaccination, it is being rectified now.
The minister said till date, along with the health care workers and frontline warriors, over four lakh people have taken the Covid-19 vaccine. Not even a single issue of side effects after taking the vaccine has been reported in the state.
At present over thousand vaccination centres have been set up in the state and the people are responding well for the vaccination. A mass vaccination camp was also organised in the state capital for which there was a good response, she added.
Urging people to take the second dose also without any fail after 28 days, Shailaja said they should not assume that they would be immune after receiving the first dose. Immunity would be achieved only 14 days after that, she said, adding people should be vigilant till then.
The minister said the state has been fighting against the pandemic scientifically. Even though the first case in the country was reported in Kerala, the state witnessed the peak last in the country. When the caseload had a rapid increase in other states, there was also a corresponding increase in the death rate.
However, in Kerala we could bring down the death rate. The percentage of deaths that has occurred in the state is still 0.4%. It has also to be noted that the deaths due to other diseases also came down during this period here. Even the sero-survey conducted by the ICMR in the state had found that the caseload was very low here, said Shailaja.