Kerala: Priority for 11 more categories in vaccination drive

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government has included those going abroad for studies and employment, among 11 more categories, in the priority group under the 18-44 age group for Covid-19 vaccination. As many as 32 categories of people belonging to the age group were included in the group earlier by considering them as frontline workers.
Principal secretary (health) Rajan Khobragade said more categories were added to the priority list after the government received requests from many departments and the general public.
As per the new decision, teachers involved in the SSLC, higher secondary and vocational higher secondary valuation camps will come under the priority group. Field staff of the food and civil supplies department, Food Corporation of India, postal, social justice, women and child welfare, animal husbandry and fisheries departments will also come in the group. Port staff and seafarers have also been included in this list.
The state on Tuesday reported 29,803 Covid cases and 177 deaths. Malappuram accounted for 5,313 cases while Palakkad, Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam reported over 3,000 cases. The number of active cases has come down to 2,55,406 while the test positivity rate is 20.84%, with 1,43,028 samples tested in the past 24 hours.
Kerala had started Covid vaccination for the 18-44 age group on May 17. Priority was given to those with comorbidities in the group in view of the limited availability of vaccine and demand. The government has already issued guidelines for vaccination of this age group and released the list of comorbidities to determine eligibility. As the next step, the state had included employees of select departments and organisations as frontline workers in the priority list.