Karnataka may need 15 lakh doses of vaccine for health workers

BENGALURU: Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Karnataka, has estimated that Karnataka may need to vaccinate at least 15 lakh people from the two top priority categories- health workers and front line warriors. Keeping in mind that every vaccine candidate requires two doses to be effective, Karnataka alone may need almost 30 lakh doses in the first two rounds of vaccination drive by the state.

A senior official from the department has said that they have estimated that almost 15 lakh people in total will need the vaccine in the second round. This list will include police personnel, teachers, waste collectors, etc. Arundathi Chandrashekar, Mission Director, National Health Mission (NHM), said that of the total 1 crore frontline workers in India, around 5 lakh are from Karnataka alone. The estimate suggests that about 5 per cent of the 2 crore people to be vaccinated in the country will be from the state which can change with the government’s guidelines on who should be included in the list, she added.

Karnataka has identified more than 30,000 vaccination sites and more than 10,000 vaccinators in government set up and the number will increase as the process to identify vaccinators from private institutions will be initiated.