The Pinarayi Vijayan Cabinet has decided to start manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines within the State. The manufacturing units of the COVID-19 vaccines will be set up in the Life Sciences Park at Thonnakkal, located in Trivandrum.
IAS officer S Chithra will be heading the project and oversee its workings. The other esteemed members who are part of the project are:
- Chairperson: Dr KP Sudheer, Principal Secretary, Department of Science and Technology
- Dr B Iqbal, State Level Expert Committee on COVID-19 Management
- Dr Vijayakumar, Vaccine specialist, Dr Reddy’s Laboratory, Hyderabad
- Dr Rajan Khobragade, Principal Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare
- Rajamanikyam, Managing Director, Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation
The project members will be responsible to initiate discussions with companies to ensure the smooth running of the manufacturing process. For now, this is all the information that we have. We hope this would speed up the vaccination process in the State.
In other news, the Kerala Government-owned Ayurvedic medicine company, Oushadhi is selling ‘Panchagavya Ghrutham’. Fact: Oushadhi is one of India’s largest public-sector Ayurveda companies in the country. This ‘medicine’ contains five main ingredients – cow dung, cow urine, cow milk, ghee and curd. Oushadhi claims that this medicine has the capability to cure fever, epilepsy, mental issues, jaundice, and improve memory power.
“Oushadhi has been bringing out over 450 medicines over the last several decades. Cow dung and other produce from a cow is used not only for ‘Panchagavya Ghrutham’ but for some other medicines as well that too after proper processing.”, shared Oushadhi managing director K V Uthaman. The news received a lot of flak and criticism from BJP supporters.
