There is not enough COVID-19 vaccines in Kerala and the spike in daily cases may require the state to enforce lockdowns at regional levels, said Health Minister KK Shailaja. The minister’s statement comes amid reports of a shortage of vaccines from several parts of the country over the past few days.
“We have begun a campaign to promote vaccination (for COVID-19). We have received nearly two lakh doses (for the campaign). When we ask (the Union government for more doses), some days we get 65,000, some other days, 18,000. We only have stock left for two more days to give people during the big campaign. Now big clusters of the disease are developing in certain areas again. We will have to apply our cluster containment strategy and put that whole region into lockdown. We will need to bring lockdowns at regional level again, if the spread becomes too high,” Minister Shailaja told reporters on Monday.