Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday gave until the end of the month for districts lagging behind in Covid-19 vaccination coverage to pick up pace.
In a meeting with the deputy commissioners and other officials of 18 districts, Bommai asked all the districts whose vaccine coverage is lower than the state average to be on par by January-end.
According to data available with the health department, the state average for first dose vaccine coverage as on date is 99.6 per cent, 83.3 per cent for second dose and 62 per cent when it comes to those aged 15-17 years.
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In the meeting, Bommai gave a list of measures for the district administrations to take, to successfully cope with the Covid third wave that is expected to peak by January 25. He asked the DCs to ensure that all houses in rural areas have access to health kits and those under home isolation are well taken care of. The DCs and District Health Officers (DHOs) must visit taluks and monitor medicine distribution. A separate SOP has to be drafted to ensure that doctors and nurses visit homes in rural areas, he said.
That apart, Bommai stressed on the need for increasing OPDs in both private and government hospitals in Bengaluru. A special plan must be drafted to create awareness about vaccines among factories that bring labourers from outside Karnataka, he added.
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Meanwhile, Health Minister K Sudhakar who spoke to reporters after the meeting said the CM had also directed to set up war rooms in all districts to coordinate tele-triaging efforts. Bommai also asked officials to open more fever clinics and establish sufficient Covid Care Centres to sustain infrastructure when there is a further rise in cases, Sudhakar said.
Compared to the first wave and the second wave, the third wave is spreading four times faster. However, it will also subside equally fast. The government believes that the third wave will subside by the end of February, according to Sudhakar.
Low booster coverage
Health Minister K Sudhakar expressed disappointment that only 39 per cent of frontline workers have taken the booster dose so far. The government will campaign for the next week to ten days, he said. Bengaluru alone saw 25,595 cases on Tuesday, while the rest of the state recorded 16,000 cases. "This means that even in rural areas the cases are increasing," he said, urging frontline workers to take the booster dose at the earliest.
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