As the state geared up to vaccinate everyone above 45 years of age from Thursday, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar appealed to the eligible people to make use of this protective cover against coronavirus.
Cautioning people not to underestimate the danger posed by Covid, Yediyurappa tweeted, "Our protective cover is the vaccine against corona. Everyone over the age of 45 can get the vaccine today. Go to your nearest vaccination centre and get the vaccine. Together we can defeat coronavirus."
Health Minister Sudhakar too tweeted, "As we begin vaccinating all citizens aged above 45 years from today, 5,500 vaccination sites will be operational across the state including 650 private and 4,850 government facilities."
According to him, 1.5 lakh doses of vaccine is supplied to Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, the civic body, which is distributed to about 600 sites across the state capital.
The Health Department said in a statement that Covid-19 vaccination will continue at all the primary health centres, community health centres, Taluk hospitals, district hospitals, medical colleges and private hospitals as already being done.
It added that Karnataka has in stock 13.5 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine and 1.5 lakh doses of Covaxin vaccine and it has been supplied to all the cold chain points across the districts as per their requirement.
The government of India has assured the state that additional vaccine doses will be supplied regularly in the coming days as per daily coverage, the department added.
The vaccination drive covering everyone above 45 years of age started at a time when there is an alarming rise in cases in Karnataka.
The state reported 4,225 fresh cases including 26 deaths on a single day on Wednesday.