A 97-year old man became the first to receive the Covid-19 vaccine as the drive for inoculating the general public got underway in Karnataka on Monday.
After the vaccination drive since January 16 covered health workers and frontline workers, the next phase started from Monday for all people above 60 years of age and those over 45 with comorbidities.
Senior citizens sporting face masks queued up at private Manipal Hospitals for getting the vaccine shot. Some of the beneficiaries were wheelchair-bound.
"Ramaswami Parthasarathy, 97-year-old, was the first to get vaccinated," Manipal Hospitals said in a statement. The hospital appealed to the senior citizens and people above 45 years with comorbidities to register themselves for inoculation.
"We at Manipal Hospitals have started the vaccination drive today. The registrations for the vaccination can be competed online through the CoWIN app, and people in the age group of 60 plus can directly walk-in for the vaccination," it said in the statement.
The hospital was cooperating with the government and abiding by the standard procedures and protocols for the vaccination drive, it added. Meanwhile, the government hospitals too started the preparations for vaccination.
"Today only we got direction from the government. We are starting the registration process from today and will begin the vaccination drive once the preparations are over," Director and Dean of Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, Dr C R Jayanthi told PTI.
The state government has said vaccination will take place at all its taluk and district level hospitals and two identified private hospitals in each district.
According to the state health department, vaccination days will be Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays in government facilities and all working days in private hospitals. The number of vaccinations would be limited to 200 per day per session site and would be on a first come first serve basis. However, online registered beneficiaries would be allotted a specific time in a day.