Karnataka plans Covid vax mela on Jan 31 to exhaust doses

The health department is planning to conduct Covid vaccination mela on January 31, second in less than two weeks, to exhaust the remaining vaccine stocks.

A mega vaccination mela was held in the state on January 21.

Naveen Bhat, State Mission Director, National Health Mission, told DH that the state had one lakh doses of Covaxin and 2.5 lakh doses of Covishield as of Thursday. The one lakh Covaxin doses have to be used up before their expiry on January 31, and the Covishield doses by February 9.

“During the mela, vaccines would be administered to the eligible at primary health centres. They can also locally decide on other sites to set up camps,” Bhat said. No specific targets have been set for the mela.

He said that the government will decide on procuring new stocks, including those of the new intranasal vaccine iNCOVACC, only in February first week, after the current stocks are exhausted.