BENGALURU: The Lasika Mela held on Wednesday helped Karnataka achieve its target of vaccinating 10 lakh people on a single day.
Districts like Gadag, Chikkaballapura, Ballari, Hassan and Yadgir districts were among the lowest performing districts, which did not even reach 50% of the day’s target.
The State government has decided to conduct Lasika Mela every Wednesday, in order to cover a major part of the population and achieve the target of vaccinating the entire population by the end of the year.
As of 5.45pm on Wednesday, vaccination figures on the CoWin portal showed that Karnataka had achieved 10,08,311 jabs. The total target population for the day was 15,19,700, while 10,08,311 were administered the vaccine. The state’s total coverage was 66 per cent.
Dr K Sudhakar tweeted, “Karnataka crosses 10 lakh doses today! Pace is picking up and we have given more than 35 lakh doses in the last 5 days!”
The top seven performing districts on Wednesday, with maximum coverage, were Dharwad with 118% coverage, Bengaluru Urban and Mandya with 108 per cent, BBMP had 97% coverage, Chikkamagaluru 84%, Shivamogga 81% and Bidar 77% coverage.
In BBMP limits, vaccination was carried out in Lasika Kendras, where social distancing was followed and the process was quick.
Among the low performing districts, Gadag covered 28%, Chikkaballapur 31%, Ballari 35 per cent, Hassan 38% and Yadgir 47%. District officials attributed the low coverage to the number of people still hesitant to take the vaccine.
While Belagavi, Tumakuru, Vijayapura, Bagalkot and Raichur achieved 60-73% coverage, Koppal, Kodagu, Udupi, Chamarajanagara and Kolar achieved 53-58%.
Dr K Sudhakar said, “Apart from the Lasika Mela on Wednesdays, on other days, the goal is to give 5 lakh vaccines, and the target is to vaccinate at least 1.50 crore a month. Our intention is that all adults should be vaccinated by December. Vaccination is preferred in border districts, while people in Yadgir, Kalaburagi and a few more districts are hesitant to get the vaccine. Elected representatives are working to ensure maximum coverage.”