In Covid-19 vaccine milestone, Karnataka covers 50% of target population with first dose

Over 50 per cent of Karnataka’s target population has received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine as of Sunday afternoon, data shows.

As important as this milestone may be, the data also appears to show that the state may not wrap up its vaccination programme by the end of this year as hoped. It took Karnataka roughly six and a half months to achieve this milestone. Additionally, the state is taking 2-4 days to increase the first dose coverage by one percentage point.

Another problem is the poor second dose coverage, which stands at a mere 14.34 per cent of the adult population.

Officials said this is due to ongoing problems: limited vaccine supplies and a degree of vaccine hesitancy.

As of Sunday, the state had administered a total of 3.29 crore doses. Out of these, 2.57 crore have been first doses. While target population figures for the state are inexact, an authoritative data source cites an adult target population of 5.11 crore, translating to 50.03 per cent coverage.

The best-performing district has been Bengaluru Urban, which has inoculated 78 per cent of its official target population of 91 lakh adults with at least one dose.

“By closing the reach of first dose vaccinations to nearly 80 per cent of the population, we feel we are in a good place,” said BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta.

He added that pockets of vaccine hesitancy have been a challenge. “Even in western countries, the coverage ranges between 80 per cent and 85 per cent because of hesitancy. We are trying to solve our problems by raising awareness.”

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Gupta also expressed optimism that the city’s second dose coverage can be boosted to 40 per cent-50 per cent by the end of September. It is currently at 21.05 per cent.

At the bottom end of the pyramid is Kalaburagi district which has the worst coverage of both first and second dose in the state.

Only 36 per cent of the target population of 19 lakh have received first dose coverage and 9 per cent second dose. “Except for the last two days when we have had a surplus of 10,000 doses, vaccine availability has been limited. We are generally using up about 80 per cent of what we are getting daily,” said Dr Sharanabasappa Ganajalkhed, District Health Officer.

Dr Ganajalkhed added that vaccine hesitancy has also increased in rural areas. “People in rural areas have become busy with agricultural activities,” he said. A government official stressed that Karnataka is still lobbying the Centre for more doses. “We received 10 lakh doses sometime ago and we have been told that another 63 lakh doses are coming. This allowed us to increase the number of daily doses, but the CM has asked the Centre to supply 1 crore doses. We are awaiting the Centre’s response,” the official said.

A scale of the usage is indicated by the fact that the state administered 76.2 lakh doses in total in July, plus 26.1 lakh doses in just the first eight days of August, as per official data. In Bengaluru Urban, Gupta said that “we are not yet in a position where there are no vaccine takers for the number of doses we are getting.”

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