BENGALURU: Just a few minutes after the launch of the vaccination drive by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Karnataka too began its much awaited vaccination rollout across 243 sites in the state.
Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa along with Health and Medical Education minister Dr K Sudhakar attended the launch at Bangalore Medical College inside the Victoria Hospital premises.
The first to get the jab across the state were Group D workers who had in some way or the other contributed in the fight against the pandemic. While in Mysuru, 28-year-old Sandesh U, an ambulance driver who ferried hundreds of bodies of COVID-19 victims, was amongst the first to be vaccinated, in Bengaluru, it was Nagarathna, a sanitation worker from the BMC hospital who recieved the jab.
Expressing happiness, Sandesh said, "The most chilling one was to carry a 11-year-old and her father a day later. Those were the most difficult days. Now with the vaccine finally out I feel much more confident to work," said Sandesh.
A cook Thyagaraj was the first person to receive the COVID vaccine at the Sir CV Raman General Hospital. He has been delivering hot meals to COVID-19 patients while wearing PPE kits. The 55-year-old is a D group worker for the last 28 years.
"I had a lot of fear as I had to give food to COVID-19 patients. I had to wear PPE kits, which caused me to sweat all over my body. It was very difficult. I am happy I was the first person to take the COVID vaccine in the hospital. The hospital staff encouraged me as I was initially scared. I did not have any side effects or issues after taking the vaccine. I am relaxed now," Thyagaraj told The New Indian Express.
Nargis Banu, a lab technician who suffered from COVID earlier while working at the hospital, also lost her father to the disease. She was relieved that the vaccine finally arrived.
"I have been working for three years in this hospital. I am very happy the vaccine has arrived. We have suffered a lot and so have other people," Banu said.
Nalina, another lab technician who was on the day 1 list of beneficiaries, said her family members had suffered from COVID and she was glad to receive the vaccine. Both Nargis and Nalina were not worried about any possible side-effects from the vaccine.
Rajkumar Patil, a senior X-ray technician who has been working for the last 30 years, said he was elated to receive the vaccine.
"Since March, we have been on COVID duty. Scientists and the government have put efforts to bring out the vaccine and we must support the work of our scientists. We will tell others also to get
the vaccine. As I am in the medical field, I am not worried about any side-effects," Patil said.
Group-D worker Umesh was the second person at the CV Raman Hospital to receive the vaccine. He said he was happy to receive it and hopes other people will get vaccinated too.
Dr HDR Radhakrishna, medical superintendent, CV Raman General Hospital, said that 100 people would be vaccinated on Saturday at their centre. There are 312 staff totally at this hospital and everyone excluding pregnant, lactating women and those with allergies will be part of the beneficiary list.
"Doctors and nurses are better trained to protect themselves from COVID and recognise symptoms early on but group D and sanitation workers do not have this advantage. Hence, it is better they get vaccinated first, especially since they have been on the frontlines, keeping the hospital clean during the pandemic," Dr. Radhakrishna said.
Health officials across Karnataka were instructed this week to stay in touch with a control room to raise questions and concerns once the vaccination programme commences. “There should not be any adverse impact and things should go smoothly,” officials had said on Friday. However, in Mandya and Chamarajanagara the drive is progressing at a very slow rate as officials are reporting delay in loading of data by the coWIN portal. Similar issues were reported even at private vaccination sites.
In Tumakuru by 1 pm, 40 got the shot out of 95 at the district hospital and no cases of complications and side effects surfaced," according to Deputy Commissioner Dr K Rakesh Kumar. " Except for the technical snag in uploading the details of the vaccinated persons, no issues occurred," he added.
In Tumkuru district, the district surgeon Dr T A Veerabhadraiah was the first to get the Covishield vaccine shot at the training centre on the premises of the general hospital.
"In order to boost the morale of frontline workers including nurses and allay fears over side effects, I chose to be first to get the shot. I have not suffered any side effects even after one hour," remarked Dr Veerabhadraiah.
Like Veerabhadraiah, several renowned doctors of the state including Dr V Ravi, senior virologist also known as 'Virus Ravi', and Dr Sudarshan Ballal, Chairman of Manipal Hospitals, also took the jab. They even requested other healthcare workers not to get apprehensive of taking the vaccine. "They must come forward to prove to society that it is safe and is much needed to take the vaccine. There is no need to panic about the safety of the vaccine. The vaccine has undergone clinical trials," Dr Ravi said.
In Kalaburagi, about 90 healthcare workers were administered Covishield vaccine by 1.30 pm on the first day of the vaccination drive, official sources told TNIE.
Vaccination was given at GIMS of Kalaburagi, taluk hospitals of Jewargi, Chincholi, Aland, Afzalpur, Chittapur and Sedam and Rural PHC at Gobbu of Afzalpur taluk.
There was an altercation between the media and officials as the former was not allowed in the vaccination room in the beginning. However, later they were allowed to take video clips. The vaccine will be administered in two doses. After the first dose, another dose will be administered after 28 days. Immunity will develop after 45 days. One has to be careful until 45 days, said officials to beneficiaries who took the jab. All centres have been instructed to cap the number of vaccines administered in a day to 100.
“We are in a position to administer the vaccine to all our 300 staff members in one day but we have been asked to spread it over three days,” the medical superintendent of a government hospital in
Bengaluru said.
In Bengaluru, 1.71 lakh health workers will receive the vaccine in phase one. Karnataka has been provided with the Covishield vaccine which will be delivered to the vaccine centres from the cold chain points on the day of vaccination, health officials said. The same vaccine will be administered in the second dose after 28 days.