Karnataka government to restart the 18+ vaccination drive from june 1

Bengaluru: On Monday, the Karnataka government said that it was looking forward to restart the vaccination drive for those between 18-44 from June 1. The drive for this age group was earlier launched thrice. Till June 1, vaccination for this age group will be limited to frontline workers and priority groups.

Deputy CM and Covid-19 task force chairman CN Ashwath Narayan said that the government will relaunch the inoculation drive from June 1 to prevent any confusion.

Health Minister K Sudhakar had earlier said that the government is gradually vaccinating the priority groups and those above 45 years of age. He said, “At present, we have 11.6 lakh doses of vaccine and have inoculated 1.2 crore people in the state.”

Deputy CM CN Ashwath Narayan said, “We will customize the CoWin app to geo-tag people taking the vaccine and avoid a mad rush, likely from June 1. We are looking at the same date for restarting the drive for 18-44 years.”

Initially, the state had launched the drive for 18+ on May 1 but, it came to halt due to a shortage of vaccines. It was then relaunched from May 10 to May 13 and again on May 22.

The last time government said that there was no vaccine to inoculate those between 18-44 years and so, the existing stock will be used to jab the priority groups. The state is already permitting on-site registration of priority groups which consist of people between 18-44 years of age. Narayan said, “We’ve completed one round for KSRTC and BMTC drivers and conductors, for BWSSB and Bescom workers and will also start for more such groups, including newspaper vendors.”