BENGALURU: A day after Union Health Minister Mansukh Madaviya asked state governments to ramp up vaccination and ensure that second doses are administered in poor performing districts, officials from the Karnataka health department and experts from the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) brainstormed to ensure maximum vaccination coverage in the state.
The state plans to rope in all government and private departments, religious leaders, mutt seers and local political leaders to spread awareness on the importance of vaccination and ensure that every person is jabbed.
“The focus will be on administering the second dose. We have already started the mobile vaccination unit in BBMP limits. This is the ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ scheme, where an ambulance is stationed near crowded localities, and healthcare workers knock on each door and vaccinate people. This will be done across all districts on priority, and is the right strategy,” explained Commissioner for Health and Family Welfare Randeep D.
Meanwhile, TAC experts also discussed possible strategies and micro planning, which the state government needs to do, to ensure people in districts with low coverage take the vaccine.
“It is a cause of worry that at least 50 per cent has opted out of the second dose. There are some districts where people have not even taken the first dose. Vaccine hesitancy due to misinformation could be one reason. Wherever there is vaccine hesitancy, we should reach out to people through social, religious and other organisations,” said a TAC expert, adding that micro planning is the key.
The state government has also planned an SMS campaign, where local PHCs have a list of eligible vaccine candidates.
Reminder messages will be sent to them, with dates of their second dose. When they fail to comply, healthcare workers will call them up, and even visit their homes.
Meanwhile, experts expressed concern over ‘Kannadakkagi Naavu’ programme in which hundreds of people assembled to sing Kannada songs ahead of Kannada Rajyotsava across the state.
Samples of students from Madikeri, who tested positive for Covid-19, will be sent for genome sequencing to trace any AY4.2 variant.
Karnataka’s genome sequencing committee will increase surveillance and analyse more samples to see if there are more cases of AY4.2, a sub-lineage of the Delta variant.
Confirming this, Health Commissioner Randeep said, “Samples mainly from clusters, including the Madikeri school, will be sequenced for the Delta variant sub-lineage. So far, there is no reason to panic as there are only two cases in Karnataka.”
Meanwhile, experts from TAC remain tight-lipped on what exactly was discussed at Thursday evening’s meeting, and said that gatherings like election rallies, weddings, funerals and festive shopping may be a cause of worry as the new variant has spread mostly in home clusters in countries like UK, Russia and Germany.
“Any situation which creates clusters should be avoided. Those who have not taken the vaccine should ensure they get both doses to avoid getting infected. Till now there is no sign of the third wave but we need to closely monitor the situation and continue with the restrictions that are in place,” an expert from TAC said.