BENGALURU: Since the vaccine drive began on Saturday, Karnataka has immunised the maximum number of beneficiaries compared to other states. It topped the list with 80,686 people taking the jab in four days, followed by Telangana (69,405) and Andhra Pradesh (58,495), according to information provided by the Press Information Bureau.
While no major Adverse Events Following Immunisation (AEFI) were reported in the state, five were reported in Bengaluru and the person in Chitradurga District Hospital is under observation. Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar tweeted, “Most people have been vaccinated in our country and the vaccines are safe. The vaccination in Karnataka has been successful. Dont believe the rumours. There is no fear of the vaccine.”
Karnataka covered 15,223 people (47%), less than half of its target of 32,205 beneficiaries on Tuesday. In BBMP limits, 94 session sites were selected. In Bengaluru Urban only three session sites -- Narayana Hrudalaya, RR Medical College and NIMHANS -- were chosen as routine immunisation of measles and pentavalent vaccines was being held at government centres, a health official said. BBMP limits reported five AEFI cases: two each from RR Nagar and West zone, and one from Yelahanka. In RR Nagar zone a 30-year-old male health care worker who received the shot on January 18 at a private hospital, developed nausea and body pain towards evening and is under observation in hospital.
A 35-year-old woman who also received the jab that day at the same hospital developed fever, and was given antivirals and sent home. “Both are fine. There is nothing to worry. These are mild side-effects which are seen in certain cases,” said BBMP health officer, RR Nagar. “None of the AEFI cases reported in Bengaluru are critical. They just had swelling and irritation which is normal when people receive intramuscular injection for vaccines,” said BBMP Commissioner Manjunatha Prasad.
In Chikkaballapur, Kolar, Mysuru, Uttara Kannada, Vijayapura and Yadgir, Covid vaccination was not done due to routine immunisation programmes for children. Dr Naveen S, principal, Raja Rajeshwari Medical College and Hospital, said, “600 Covishield doses were sent to us. We have administered the vaccine to 350 beneficiaries so far. No major side-effects were reported, aside from pain at site of injection and shoulder pain.
The remaining 2,483 health care staff and students will be covered in the next few days.” The CoWIN portal has not functioned properly since January 16. “When vaccination started, the portal did not work and caused delay. We didn’t wait for long and began to manually enter beneficiaries’ details,” said a doctor from Ramaiah Memorial Hospital.
Jab for the warrior
In the midst of truly divided opinion in the medical and scientific community, many of us doctors put away our initial and misplaced concerns to be among the first recipients of the Covishield vaccine. Controversies aside, the sheer scale of the effort of civic agencies was impressive. I urge the public to repose faith in this effort of the government and ensure that this vaccination drive is successful. Let us join hands with governments across the globe in their concerted efforts to mitigate the onslaught of this virus. It has been over 24 hours since the dose and I have had no symptoms or side-effects
Dr sunil narayan dutt,
Senior consultant, ENT, Apollo Hospitals
I was the first to take the vaccine in the hospital as I intended to build confidence in the health staff. I wanted to make them understand that the vaccine is good and that they need to take it to be safe. We (health workers) need to protect ourselves so that we can protect rest of the people. Initially, we badly wanted the vaccine. But now when it’s here, we have all doubts. Everyone should come forward and take it. When I took the vaccine, it was just a small prick and I had no side-effects. Of the 600 beneficiaries who were to take the shot in our hospital on Tuesday, 305 were vaccinated. The CoWIN portal had issues due to which many people did not receive the message. We expect the response to be over 70% in the next round if there is no glitch in the portal
Dr naresh shetty President, Ramaiah Memorial Hospital