Karnataka Minister for Health and Medication Education Dr K Sudhakar on Monday claimed that the State stands first in South in vaccination drives.
In a tweet, he said that the drive will move faster as vaccine delivery is picking up, thanks to GOI support. The state received the following on May 29: 80,000 doses of COVAXIN 2,17,310 doses of Covishield.
Busting myths about World’s largest vaccination drive: MYTH: Centre has not approved vaccines that are available globally. FACT: GoI allowed entry of vaccines approved by US FDS, EMA, UK’s MHRA and Japan’s PMDA, and WHO’s Emergency Use Listing into India in April.
India’s Covid-19 vaccination drive is set to accelerate further as the Serum Institute of India ramps up its production capacity to manufacture and supply 9 to 10 crore doses of Covishield vaccine as compared to its production capacity of 6.5 cr doses in May.
Vaccinations in Karnataka have picked up steam over the last 10 days, with the Health Minister stating that the programme is on track with more than 24 lakh doses administered in Bengaluru alone.
As per official data, the daily number of new vaccinations began to rise from May 21, after the definition of frontline workers was expanded to include 22 new professions, including street vendors, prisoners, auto drivers, government transport personnel. May 21 saw the State set a new record in the number of inoculations given on a single day: 2.92 lakh doses. The numbers have since largely averaged 1.88 lakh doses per day over the last 10 days.
However, the number of people in Karnataka who have had both doses of vaccines is still relatively small at 2.72 lakh people as of Sunday — which constitutes only 4.1 per cent of the statewide population, estimated to be 6.5 crores.
