Kerala launches largest COVID inoculation drive for IT professionals

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala IT Parks and the Technopark Employees Cooperative (TEC) Hospital here, in collaboration with various IT Companies, launched the largest Covid-19 vaccination drive for the state’s software professionals and their family members.

The vaccination programme was inaugurated on Saturday by MLA Kadakampally Surendran at a facility set up by the H&R Block in Technopark here. The first phase of inoculation for employees of more than 450 companies in the Technopark and their family members began today, a statement said here.

This would be extended to the entire IT workforce at the Infopark in Kochi and Cyberpark in Kozhikode and separate inoculation camps would be set up in both places in the coming weeks, it said. TEC Hospital has procured two lakh Covishield jabs exclusively for the IT community in the southern state.

It is the first cooperative sector establishment in Kerala to procure vaccines directly from manufacturers for the massive inoculation drive, it said. The hospital has received 25,000 jabs in the first batch. “It is a significant step to ensure the safety of IT professionals and their family members.

The vaccination drive will help bring the workforce and normalcy back to the IT campuses across the state,” said John M Thomas, Chief Executive Officer, Kerala State IT parks. He also expressed hope that the effort would bring much-needed relief to the IT fraternity, their families and IT companies in the challenging times.

Few of the major companies in Technopark and Infopark have started vaccinating their employees with limited jabs. “The inoculation drive is open for all IT workforce in both government-run and private IT parks in the state,” Binu R Kurup, president, TEC Hospital, said. Shashi Tharoor MP, who played a key role in the procurement of the jabs from the manufacturer, felicitated the event through a video message.