BENGALURU: Following the COVID-19 lasika mela (vaccination drive) which was held on Friday, on the occasion of PM Narendra Modi's birthday, with much fanfare, the vaccination numbers in Karnakata dropped in the subsequent days.
There were 31 lakh (31,43,598) doses administered in Karnataka during the mela. There has been over a 90 percent drop in the daily vaccinations following that. The very next day, only 1.82 lakh (1,82,309) doses were administered. The lowest was observed on Sunday, with 58,509 doses administered. On Monday, there was an increase, although nowhere close to the lasika mela's achievement, with 2,55,503 doses. On Tuesday, 2,62,709 doses were administered.
Dr. Arundhathi Chandrashekar, managing director, National Health Mission said, "The stock sent to districts for the lasike mela got exhausted on the same day. The following two days were break days, with the vaccine drive picking up once again on Monday. Our target is to administer 5 lakh doses daily."
She added that it takes one to one-and-a-half days for the stock to reach the districts from the state. There was a meeting held on Monday with district officials, where they were instructed by the Health and Family Welfare department to strategize vaccine administration. She said in one or two days the drive will be back on track, with the department preparing for the next mela on Wednesday, September 21. For this, they have received a stock of more than 20 lakh doses.
Health and Medical Education Minister Dr. K Sudhakar was not available for comment.
As per the COWIN dashboard, Karnataka stands seventh in the country, in terms of total doses administered with the figure at 5,26,63,920. Preceding it are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and West Bengal. Within the state, BBMP, Belgaum, Mysuru, Dakshina Kannada have given the most number of doses to beneficiaries.