Karnataka govt, BBMP differ on reason for dip in Covid-19 vaccination

The city witnessed a dip in vaccination in the last few days, which, though blamed on the festive season, has also been attributed to a drop in supplies.

From Friday to Monday, the state dispensed an average of 2.07 lakh doses per day — much below the average of 5.43 lakh doses it was dispensing between August 21 and September 9.

Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar acknowledged the dip. “This was due to the Gowri-Ganesha festival and the long weekend associated with it,” he said. “It is a deserving break for healthcare professionals who have been relentlessly working on the vaccination drive for seven months. It is back to business from Monday.”

He added that the vaccination supply from the Centre “is normal”.

However, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) said that last week was a return to the vaccine-austerity days of July and August.

“The whole of last week saw limited supplies of vaccines,” said D Randeep, Special Commissioner (Health), BBMP.

As per data, while municipal authorities received over 70,000 doses on September 5 and 6, deliveries began to drop afterwards.

On Thursday, September 9, only 28,323 doses were provided, followed by a low of 15,492 doses on Friday. On Saturday, 45,785 doses were provided.

“Our closing stock on Sunday was 35,750 doses and we received 70,000 new doses, which brought the available number of doses on Monday to 1,05,760,” Randeep said, adding that he expects most of these doses to be expended as public demand for vaccination remains high.

As of Monday night, the BBMP had administered over 73,000 doses.

Gauging coverage

The statewide dip means the government’s ambitious goal of vaccinating the entire adult population by November will be delayed. Further, there have been problems gauging vaccination coverage in districts.

Bengaluru Urban district was deemed as having reached 100% first dose coverage on August 30. However, in the 13 days since, it has dispensed an additional 48,993 first doses.

Sudhakar said the variation is due to a floating population and people from neighbouring districts or the BBMP areas getting vaccinated in the district.

Bengaluru Urban Deputy Commissioner J Manjunath said the discrepancy is because the target population figures were projections — in the absence of 2021 census data.

“While this challenges how we track vaccination coverage, we can ultimately gauge the success of the drive by seeing how many new Covid-19 cases are recorded daily. Thanks to our vaccination coverage, our daily numbers are in single digits,” he said.