COVID-19: Karnataka to resume vaccination of 18-44 age group from Saturday

PTI, May 21, 2021, 9:23 AM IST

Image Credit: Pixaby

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government will resume the COVID-19 vaccination drive for people in the 18-44 years age group from Saturday.

The frontline warriors will be the first to receive the jabs followed by other eligible groups in the list, the state government said in an order on Thursday.

The decision came eight days after the government ordered the suspension of the vaccination drive for this group in the absence of adequate supply of vaccines.

“Vaccination for 18-44 years age group is being resumed from May 22 and state procured vaccines will be utilised to vaccinate the eligible beneficiaries,” the order stated.

The state has identified corona frontline warriors who will be receiving the vaccines initially, it said.

According to the order, deputy commissioners and the chief commissioner of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will be in charge of the vaccination of this group in Bengaluru.

Nodal officers for each category will be nominated by the deputy commissioners in districts and chief commissioner of BBMP to facilitate COVID-19 vaccine Covishield.

They will also issue eligibility certificates of the category under which the beneficiaries will be vaccinated, the order stated.

According to the order, the mode of implementation will be workplace vaccination.

For those willing to get vaccinated should produce eligibility certificates for registration on Co-WIN portal.

The certificate can be any valid identity card approved by the Government of India, the order said.

“The number of vaccination sites and vaccinations per day will be decided by the district authorities based on the availability of vaccines,” it said.

The state government also clarified that other priority groups will be vaccinated as per the list.

Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa had started the vaccination drive for people from 18 years to 45 years on May 1 symbolically, but suspended the drive on May 12.

Health Minister K Sudhakar said the state has so far received 1,22,20,510 vaccines and vaccinated 1,13,61,234 people.

Karnataka has placed an order for two crore Covishield and one crore Covaxin vaccines. It has also decided to float a global tender for two crore vaccines.

The southern state has set a target to vaccinate the eligible population by the year-end.