Vaccination of those between 18-44 years has been postponed due to shortage of vaccines

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government has decided to postpone the Covid-19 vaccination drive for those between 18-44 years of age from Saturday.

Health Minister K Sudhakar said that the new dates will be announced when they received sufficient doses of vaccines.

He said, “I appeal to our people not to crowd in front of any hospital as inoculation drive won’t commence from May 1st as it was decided earlier.”

The government affirmed that it has already placed orders for vaccines with Rs 400 crore from Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) which is licensed to manufacture Covishield.

Sudhakar also said that the institute failed to deliver the vaccines even after placing the orders on time due to which the vaccination drive will not be launched as per the schedule on May 1.

He has asked people who have registered through the CoWin portal to not go to vaccination centres on May 1.

He said that the government will inform the beneficiaries once SII confirms the arrival of the vaccines.

The minister affirmed that the SII can produce five to six crore doses a month, whereas the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech that produces the Covaxin can produce 1.5 crore doses.

Even though Russia’s Sputnik has given license to pharma major Dr Reddy’s Laboratory to produce the vaccine, they have not yet informed the government about when they will be able to supply it.

As per the data released by the Karnataka health department, an aggregate of 93,63,124 beneficiaries including health workers and frontline workers have received the vaccination till Thursday across the southern state.