BENGALURU : A day after the grand launch of the vaccination drive across the country on Saturday, Karnataka on the second day saw 58 per cent of healthcare and frontline workers coming forward to take the jab. The Day 2 was held at only 64 session sites located at private hospitals in Bengaluru and Udupi districts.
The numbers though still less, the State Health Ministry attributed the muted response to it being a Sunday and also to some people still being apprehensive of the vaccine. To increase the number of people getting vaccinated, the government has decided to resume vaccination at more centres from Monday.
“A lot more facilities have joined the programme. The sites will be increased at private hospitals at all districts,” said Medical Education and Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar, while speaking at Manipal Hosptial on Old Airport Road in Bengaluru, where 4,055 beneficiaries had registered at 41 sites in the hospital.
More vaccine centres need to be opened, says senior doctor
BBMP Commissioner Manjunatha Prasad said that from Monday, 7,300 health workers will be vaccinated at 141 public health units in Bengaluru alone. “At 106 private hospitals, 42,000 workers will be administered the vaccine and at nine medical colleges, 28,000 will be vaccinated,” he said.
Depending on the preparedness of private hospitals in other districts, the number of vaccination sites will also be increased. “All hospitals are prepared to begin the vaccine programme, but DCs of respective districts will take the decision.
Vaccines have reached across the state,” Dr Sudhakar said. Though he had hoped that more number of people would get vaccinated on the second day, Manipal Hospital saw 2,704 beneficiaries. From the target of 6,327 beneficiaries, 3,699 people took the jab across Bengaluru and Udupi districts. “There has been no major adverse effects in the state.
People will soon start coming forward to take the vaccine and to ensure that we manage to finish all the seven lakh-odd population who have registered in the first phase, the government should open more sites,” said a senior doctor from the Covid Advisory Committee. However, experts are still worried about CoWIN portal not working. The problems with the portal were experienced on Day 2 also at most sites.
The staff, however, have been instructed to make manual entries of all the beneficiaries. “Right now, we are managing it manually. Though it is a tedious process, our staff feel it is safe. It is not a problem now, but once we start administering vaccines to the public, it will be a big mess. But I am sure the Centre will look into this soon,” explained a senior doctor. “The portal issue is being addressed,” said Dr Sudhakar.
Vax drive on Sunday
Bengaluru Urban
Session sites 63
Target for the day 6,227
Target achieved 3659
Udupi
Session site 1
Target for the day 100
Target achieved 40
2 suffer adverse reaction
Two cases of Adverse Events Following Immunisation (AEFI), where patients developed stomach ache, were reported on the second day of vaccination in Udupi on Sunday