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Karnataka aiming to achieve 100% Covid vaccination by Nov-end: Health minister
State health minister K Sudhakar said they have received around 200,000 doses of Covid vaccine from Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) as part of their purchase order of 20 million doses
The Karnataka government on Wednesday said it is aiming to administer Covid-19 vaccine to all its adults by October or November-end this year. State health minister K Sudhakar said in Bengaluru that vaccination was the way forward for the state in its fight against Covid-19.
“Karnataka received 200,000 doses of Covishied today as part of the order placed by the state government. So far, the state has received 1,094,000 doses (950,000 Covishield & 144,000 Covaxin) as part of direct procurement from manufacturers in addition to 11,124,470 doses received from GoI,” the minister also posted on Twitter.
The state government has placed orders for at least 30 million doses of vaccines from both SII and Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech that produces Covaxin.
The state had to suspend its vaccination drive of the first dose for 18-44 age group as well as those above 45 due to late delivery of vaccine.This shortage brought down the daily inoculations to 65,181 on Tuesday (till 3.30pm) that takes the total to 11,348,708. Only 2.5 million people have received both the doses which accounts for less than 4% of the state’s entire population estimated at 65 million.
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Karnataka remains one of the most impacted regions in the country as cases continue to surge in most places even though it has shown signs of letting up in Bengaluru. However, experts also say that a drop in testing could also be the reason for fewer cases being reported.
Sudhakar said though the state is seeing a higher recovery rate, the next challenge is to bring down the fatality rate, identifying new infections and giving appropriate treatment at the earliest.
“The second way forward for the state is that everyone in Karnataka should be administered the vaccines at the earliest. The government is striving towards ensuring 100% coverage to the entire population by October or November-end,” Sudhakar said in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
He said that the Centre has so far provided the state with 11,126,340 doses. Of the purchases made directly by the state government, it has so far received 950,000 doses of Covishield and 144,170 doses of Covaxin. These, he said, bring the doses received by the state so far to 12,220,510.
“We are looking to import vaccines from abroad,” the minister added. He said Russian-developed Sputnik will have a manufacturing plant in Karnataka which raises hopes of completing the vaccination drive in the state “before the entire country”.
