Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday said that a committee under eminent virologist T. Jacob John has been constituted to study if it is possible to set up a vaccine manufacturing unit in the state.

A veteran virologist, John has been associated with successive Kerala governments a few years back to set up a Virology Institute and will see if this institute can do the job. Pinarayi Vijayan made the announcement at his routine Covid press briefing.

“At present, vaccine manufacturing is mainly undertaken by multinational companies. Hence, the process has become market and profit driven. As Kerala has faced several viral diseases including Chikungunya, Dengue and Nipah, it would be an asset for the state to be capable of researching and producing vaccines on its own. Using the facilities at the Institute of Advanced Virology in Thiruvananthapuram, the committee under Jacob John will study the possibility of starting a vaccine production unit in Kerala,” the CM said.

Giving the latest figures, he said: “On Monday 3,382 people turned Covid positive after 34,689 samples were tested in the past 24 hours. The day also saw 6,055 people turn Covid negative taking the total cured to 5,38,713.”

There were 61,894 active Covid cases presently. The state also saw 21 Covid deaths, taking the total death toll to 2,244.

As on Monday, there were 3,11,770 people under observation at various places in the state including 15,676 people in hospitals. There were 504 hotspots.

  pinaray vijayan