IT firms, offices in Karnataka start vaccinations from April 11: Health Min

Anti-Covid vaccine can be given to all employees above 45 years of age at their workplace in public and private sectors across Karnataka from April to develop immunity against the virus, said state health minister K. Sudhakar on Wednesday. "Vaccine can be administered to beneficiaries above 45 years of age at all government and private workplaces across the state from April 11 to ramp up the drive and ensure more people develop immunity," Sudhakar told reporters here,

The decision to vaccinate eligible people at workplaces was taken at a virtual review meeting Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and Sudhakar had with deputy commissioners of Bidar, Chikkamagaluru, Chitradurga, Dakshina Kannada, Hassan, Kalaburagi, Mandya, Mysuru, Tumakur and Udupi districts across the southern state.

The Union Health Ministry allowed states to permit vaccination at workplaces in private and public sectors, where at least 100 employees are ready to take the jab so as to inoculate and immunise as many people at the earliest.

"As several IT firms urged us to allow vaccination in their premises, they can administer the dose to those ready for it," said Sudhakar, a medical doctor by profession.

According to the state health bulletin, 88,499 people were vaccinated across the state during the day. Among them 37,189 are senior citizens and 46,333 in the 45-59 age group.

"Cumulatively, 48,32,382 people received the dose since the vaccination drive was launched on January 16 across the southern state," said the bulletin.

Admitting that positivity rate was rising of late and touched 6.02 per cent on Monday before dipping to 5.56per cent on Tuesday, the minister said more testing would be conducted where positive cases were high or increasing.

Out of 1,25,390 tests conducted during the day across the state, 8,433 were through rapid antigen detection and 1,16,957 through RT-PCR.

With no let-up in the rising pandemic, 6,976 new cases were registered in a day on Tuesday, taking the state's Covid tally to 10,33,560, including 49,254 active cases.

As epi-centre of the infection, Bengaluru reported 4,991 fresh cases, taking its Covid tally to 4,60,016, including 35,789. With 35 succumbing to the virus, including 25 in this tech city, the state's death toll rose to 12,731 since it broke out a year ago.

Case fatality rate was 0.50 per cent across the state on Tuesday. "Though we have ramped up infrastructure over a year to treat Covid patients, we need to ensure more patients end up needing ICUs and ventilator, especially in Bengaluru where facilities are overwhelmed with more active cases and 5.56 per cent fatality rate," added Sudhakar, a medical doctor by profession.