BENGALURU: The state government is aiming to fully vaccinate the entire adult population in Karnataka by November-end, said Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar. Previously, he had set December as the deadline for this. After a video conference with Deputy Commissioners and Zilla Panchayat CEOs of 23 districts that are lagging behind in vaccination coverage, the minister told reporters that the district administrations have been given a target to expedite it and complete the first dose by September-end.
Defending the government’s decision to allow public celebration of Ganesha Chaturthi, Sudhakar said that even last year, the festival was allowed to be celebrated despite high number of cases. “This year, we have a positivity rate of 0.7 per cent and guidelines have been issued to ensure precautionary measures. We will review the situation district wise and issue separate guidelines wherever the positivity is over 2 per cent,” the minister said.