Thiruvananthapuram: The 3.5 lakh doses of the State-purchased Covishield vaccine will be administered to the priority group among those aged between 18 and 45.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced that critically ill people, volunteers of ward-level committees who conduct home visits, journalists, and volunteers of the COVID brigade would be administered the vaccine initially.

The State had 3.64 lakh doses—1.97 lakh doses of Covidshield and 1.67 lakh doses of Covaxin—of the vaccine, and it was distributed through 751 centres on Monday.

The Thiruvananthapuram district led the inoculation drive by distributing 9.35 lakhs of the vaccine, followed by Ernakulam, which provided 8.9 lakh doses. Wayanad and Idukki districts were at the bottom of the list, distributing 2.5 lakh doses each.

The State government had decided to procure one crore doses of vaccines directly from the manufacturers.

Kerala received the first consignment, 3.5 lakh from the 70 lakh doses of Covishield it had ordered from the Serum Institute of India, on Monday.

Community kitchens

The chief minister also announced that community kitchens would be opened in 161 panchayats, which did not have Kudumbashree-run restaurants.

All panchayats were asked to divert money from their plan funds for treating COVID patients. Paucity of funds should not hamper anti-COVID activities, the chief minister said.

A special team under the State Youth Welfare board would help in buying medicines for those in isolation. The team has volunteers in all parts of each district, coordinated by district-level call centres. They would deliver medicines at the doorstep.

The volunteers could be reached over phone numbers published on social media.

Police officers to get treatment at home

Police personnel undergoing treatment for COVID-19 at their residences would be provided healthcare at their respective homes. An instruction in this regard has been issued to the Department of Health, Chief Minister Vijayan said.

An exclusive COVID first line treatment centre (CFLTC) for police personnel has been set up in Kochi city. The District Disaster Management Authorities have been asked to set up similar facilities in their districts, if necessary.

Currently, 1,259 police officers have been undergoing treatment for COVID-19 in the State.

No collection of garbage

The Department of Local Self Government has temporarily suspended the collection of garbage from the residences of COVID-19 patients and those in quarantine.

An instruction to this effect has been issued to the Haritha Karma Sena under local self-government bodies. Garbage collection would re-start after the surveillance period.

The Haritha Karma Sena, or the green task force, is a joint venture of the Kudumbashree with the Haritha Kerala Mission and the Suchitwa Mission.