Elderly facing difficulty in getting vaccinated

Senior citizens visiting hospitals for taking Covid vaccination shots are having a difficult time across Kerala.

With problems in registration and token system continuing, the elderly (60+) and 45+ people with chronic ailments, are being given fresh dates at many places after being made to wait in the queue for hours.

The 60+ people and 45+ with chronic illnesses are finding it difficult to enter the portal which is resulting in the delay in allotting vaccination date and time. Since the vaccination of over 3.5 lakh government staff which has been deputed for election duty has to be completed by March 6, there is additional burden on the hospitals.

In this round, the health authorities have also taken up the task of vaccinating health workers who could not register earlier besides the frontline workers waiting for the second dose. With the number of people awaiting vaccination increasing, there is additional burden on the portal and since the elderly and people with chronic ailments have to register along with them, they are the worst affected.

The health authorities said that steps are being taken to sort out the problem. More vaccination centres would be opened in the government and private hospital soon as per the direction of the central government.

Meanwhile, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday said that the Covid cases in the state had dropped significantly.

Over the last one week, the number of cases have come down by 13 per cent. On Thursday, Kerala recorded 2,616 new cases of Covid while 4,156 people recovered from the infection.