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Updated April 30th, 2021 at 10:30 IST

Karnataka's 'vaccine for 18+' drive delayed; 1 cr-dose order from SII not in yet: Minister

Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar informed that the vaccination for people above 18 years of age would be delayed as SII was yet to deliver vaccine doses

Reported by: Koushik Narayanan
Karnataka
Credits: PTI / ANI | Image:self
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Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar informed that the vaccination for people above 18 years of age in the state, which is scheduled to begin from May 1, would be delayed as Serum Insititute of India (SII) had not yet delivered one crore vaccine doses ordered by the state. The state health minister's statement comes a day ahead of the opening up of the Phase 3 of the inoculation drive for people aged between 18-45 years. Speaking to ANI, K Sudhakar requested people to refrain from going to hospitals to take their jabs from May 1 citing a delay in the delivery of the procurement. 

This comes amid the state witnessing an alarming spike in COVID-19 cases, with the health minister claiming that 2000-3000 COVID positive patients have effectively gone incommunicado and pose enough of a public health risk that the police have been tasked with tracing them. However, little headway has been made on this front as all these runaway patients have allegedly turned off their phones.

Karnataka to procure additional 1 cr doses of COVID vaccine 

Karnataka Chief Minister B Yediyurappa had announced on Thursday that the state government was procuring one crore additional doses of COVID vaccine and that the work order in this regard has been placed. Government of India has so far supplied 99.40 lakh doses of vaccine to the state and 93.50 lakh doses have been administered, he said, adding, around 5.9 lakh doses are available. Vaccination drive for 18-45 age group would be undertaken in a phased manner, the CM said.

"Government of India, on request of many states, has liberalised this phase (vaccination for 18-45 age group) for procurement of vaccines and implementation plan", Yediyurappa said.

Karnataka's COVID situation

Karnataka on Thursday registered 35,024 fresh COVID-19 infections, a dip of over 4000, and 270 fatalities, taking the caseload and toll to 14,74,846 and 15,306 respectively, the health department said. The state had reported 39,047 fresh cases on Wednesday. There were 3,49,496 active cases including 2,431 in the ICU whereas 14,142 patients were discharged on Thursday taking the total discharges to 11,10,025.

Bengaluru urban district alone contributed 19,637 fresh infections and 143 deaths, taking the total infections and fatalities to 7,29,984 and 6,282 since the outbreak of the pandemic. The city has 2,37,518 active cases whereas 4,86,183 people were discharged including 6,128 on Thursday. The department said 1,219 cases were reported in Mysuru, 1,175 in Dakshina Kannada, 1,129 in Bengaluru Rural, 957 in Kalaburagi, 939 in Mandya, 896 in Ballari, 628 in Raichur, 624 in Hassan, 568 in Udupi 545 each in Belagavi and Chikkaballapura, 537 in Kodagu, 536 in Kolar.

Cases were also reported in Bagalkote, Bidar, Chamarajanagar, Chikkamagaluru, Chitradurga, Davangere, Dharwad, Gadag, Koppal, Ramanagar, Shivamogga, Uttara Kannada, Vijayapura and Yadgir. There were 1,75,816 tests done on Thursday including 1,60,698 using the RT PCR and other methods, pushing the total tests done to 2.54 crore. More than 93.63 lakh people have been inoculated so far, the department added. 

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Published April 30th, 2021 at 10:30 IST

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