Minister K. Sudhakar says State may start Covid vaccination from Monday

Bengaluru: Health Minister K. Sudhakar on Friday said the State was expected to receive 13,90,000 vials of Covid-19 vaccine in a day or two, and it's likely to be administered starting from January 11. "The big good news for Karnataka is that I have received information from the Union Health Ministry that tomorrow or the day after probably we will be receiving 13,90,000 vials of vaccine. It's a big happy news for all of us," he said. Speaking to reporters after visiting a private hospital here, where vaccination dry run is being conducted, Sudhakar said, the vaccination would be first administered to healthcare workers. "We have registered 6.30 lakh healthcare professionals in Karnataka till date. Those who are left out, may be in some medical or dental colleges, we have requested them to register," he said adding that health workers will be followed by those with comorbidities, those above 60 years and those in other departments like Police and Revenue working against the pandemic.

Later speaking in Chikkaballapura, Sudhakar said, the vaccine vials would be distributed to all the districts and probably it would be administered from Monday itself. Covid-19 vaccination dry run was held at 263 health facilities across Karnataka on Friday.

The minister who visited some facilities, where the dry run was going on said, arrangements and preparedness were quite good, and the process was being followed as per the guidelines. The first round of the dry run, an exercise for end- to-end testing of the vaccination process was held in five districts - Bengaluru (including BBMP), Belagavi, Kalburgi, Mysore and Shivamogga- on December 2 as per the government of India guidelines.