BENGALURU: With a surge in Covid-19 cases in China, Japan and the US and a few other countries, Karnataka Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar has urged people in the state to take the precautionary (booster) dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. So far, only 20% of the people in Karnataka have taken the booster dose, the minister said.
Dr Sudhakar also said that Karnataka will comply with the Union Health Ministry’s advisory to send samples of all positive Covid-19 cases for genome sequencing to trace new variants. “Appropriate steps will be taken to trace any new variants,” he added.
Further, screening will also be done at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport to identify infected passengers, he added on the measures taken to check the spread of the virus.
He further said that new guidelines will soon be released in this regard. The samples of all passengers testing positive for Covid-19 will be sent to INSACOG (Indian SARC-COV-2 Genomics Consortium) to study if any new variants are found, he elaborated.
Meanwhile, Dr MK Sudarshan, chairman, Karnataka Technical Advisory Committee, told TNIE that in the past few months people in the state have become lenient and did not come forward to get their booster shot. People have even stopped wearing masks, he said. Meanwhile, 18 new cases were reported in Karnataka on Wednesday taking the active caseload to 1,263. Twenty-seven people recovered on Tuesday taking the recovery rate to 98.97%.
Meanwhile, 3,622 rapid antigen detection and RT PCR tests were conducted in Karnataka on Wednesday. Total passengers screened at Bengaluru airport was 5,692.
As many as 5.51 crore people have taken the first dose of vaccine and 5.53 crore people have taken the second dose in Karnataka.
However, the Covid portal showed that only 1.03 crore people in Karnataka had taken the precautionary dose.