K’taka receives 200,000 doses as vaccination drive for 18+ resumes

Bengaluru A day before starting its vaccination drive for all adults, Karnataka received 200,000 doses of Covishield vaccine from Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) on Friday

Bengaluru A day before starting its vaccination drive for all adults, Karnataka received 200,000 doses of Covishield vaccine from Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) on Friday. The new arrival takes the total procurements, including Bharat Biotech-manufactured Covaxin, to 1,094,170, according to the state government.

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“Karnataka will receive 2 lakh doses of Covishield today from (an) order placed by (the) state govt. So far, we have received 12,420,510 doses incl 11,326,340 (10,160,060 Covisheid & 1,166,280 Covaxin) from GoI & 1,094,170 (950,000 Covishield & 144,170 Covaxin) from state procurement,” Dr K Sudhakar, Karnataka’s minister for health, family welfare and medical education tweeted on Friday.

The arrival of new stock comes a day before the state resumes the vaccination drive for 18-44 age group. Karnataka’s vaccination drive has seen a steady decline in recent days, mostly due to the shortage of vaccines in the state.

According to the daily bulletin of the state health department, around 11,800,761 doses have been administered in the state till 3.30 pm on Friday. Only 2,572,151 beneficiaries have received both doses of the vaccines, according to official data.

The state administered 81,268 doses on Friday, which is less than 30% of its own target of inoculating 300,000 persons per day.

Dr CN Ashwath Narayan, deputy chief minister and head of Karnataka’s task force on Covid-19, on Friday said there were at least 190,000 people in the state who are scheduled to get their second dose of Covaxin.

Karnataka continues to prioritise the second dose as shortages have forced the government to suspend vaccination for other age groups (18-44) at least twice in the last one month. Narayan said there are 170,000 doses of Covaxin available in Karnataka at the moment.

Among the 18-44 age group, the state government will first inoculate immediate family members of health workers, transport department staff, auto and cab drivers, street vendors, court officials, media personnel, differently abled persons and APMC workers among other sections as priority before they open it to others, officials said.

Meanwhile, several people took to social media to complain about not being able to secure appointment or slots on the Cowin app.

Karnataka has proposed to develop software that would be linked with the Cowin app and streamline the process. “From June 1, this portal will be operational,” Narayan said.

Karnataka, like other states in the country, are heavily dependent on vaccines to tide over the deadly second wave of infections that has a higher rate of transmissibility and resulted in more fatalities.

The southern state has seen its daily Covid-19 infections stabilise at around 30,000 per day as against around 50,000 about two weeks ago.

Karnataka reported 32,218 new infections on Friday. It also reported 52,581 recoveries, which has brought down the active caseload to 514,238, according to the health bulletin. The positivity rate continued to remain high at 24.22%. The state recorded 353 more deaths as the fatality rate remained at 1.09%.

Bengaluru recorded 9,591 new infections and accounted for 129 fatalities on Friday, the bulletin said.

Other districts are on a high alert after a spike in infections and fatalities were reported in rural areas. Ballari, Shivamogga, Tumakuru, Uttara Kannada and Mysuru are among the worst hit, recording 23, 20, 16, 22 and 12 deaths, respectively.