BENGALURU: Karnataka is set to launch the second dry run of the Covid-19 immunisation programme, which is much larger in scale than the first one on January 2. According the Central guidelines, a trial would have to be done in at least three locations in each district on Friday, Health Minister Dr Sudhakar said on Thursday.
“So the dry run in Karnataka will be held at 263 different health facilities across the state tomorrow,” he said.
The exercise will be carried out at 30 urban primary health care centres and 28 private health centres. The drill would test the actual system of vaccine delivery from end-to-end. A similar exercise on a smaller scale was held on January 2 in five districts: Bengaluru (including BBMP), Belagavi, Kalaburagi, Mysuru and Shivamogga.
Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan chaired a video conference of health ministers of all the states.
‘Infrastructure ready’ Sudhakar said that around 6.3 lakh health workers from both the government and private sector have signed up for the vaccine and the window for registration is still open. They will be among one crore people across India who will be inoculated against Covid on priority basis.
He said the state has the infrastructure for the vaccination drive.
“The Centre has provided 24 lakh syringes of 0.5 ml each. We have 10 walk-in coolers, 4 walk-in freezers, 3,201 ice line refrigerators, 3,039 deep freezers, 3,312 cold boxes, 46,591 vaccine carriers and 2,25,749 ice packs. The Centre has also provided 64 large ice line refrigerators with a capacity of 225 litres each. Two more walk-in coolers and one walk-in freezer will be received from the Centre,” Sudhakar said, told media after the video conference with the Union Health Minister.
“Vaccination should be a people’s movement. There is no harm from it and people should act responsibly. The polio vaccination drive will be held and 65 lakh children will be vaccinated on January 17,” he said.
UK returnees
As many as 117 people who returned from the UK and are in Karnataka are yet to be traced. Of these, 112 are in Bengaluru and the rest in other districts, Sudhakar said. Personnel from the home, health, and urban development departments, and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike are working to trace the UK returnees, and there is no attempt to mask the numbers, he said.
“Many of them hold foreign passports, and over 1,000 people who have come are from other states. Those states have been alerted to take necessary action,” he said. At least 2,523 UK returnees have so far undergone Covid-19 tests, and 65 have tested COVID-19 positive on an RT-PCR test, he added.
Meanwhile, two people who were infected with the UK strain have recovered. A 35-year-old woman and her six-year-old daughter from Bommanahalli in Bengaluru were discharged from Victoria Hospital on Wednesday. At present, only 14 of 26 UK returnees remain in Victoria Hospital.
Eleven people have tested positive for the UK strain. Seven of these people are in Bengaluru and four in Shivamogga.