State receives 8 lakh Covishield doses, vaccination drive to begin soon

Bengaluru: With the shortage of Covishield vaccine, Karnataka has finally got its hands on 8 lakh doses of the vaccine. These doses have arrived to the state and vaccination drive is set to begin by the end of this week.

State Health Minister, Dr. K Sudhakar claimed that a target has been set by the Government to achieve a minimum of 50% of booster doses by January end. However, the shortage of vaccines made the target unachievable.

Although the Covaxin doses were available, the shortage of Covishield and Corbevax doses was observed. According to sources, the State Government did not request consignments of the doses.

Following the recent increase in COVID infections in China, a higher demand for vaccines was witnessed. Sources claimed that the State Government soon requested 30 lakh doses from the Centre.

Now that 8 lakh doses have been received by the state, government officials are conducting vaccination drives to make up for the lost time. The Director of National Health Mission (NHM) in Karnataka is expected to conduct a meeting with heads of district administration to effectively begin the vaccination drive.