Karnataka starts COVID-19 vaccination drive for students, working professionals travelling overseas

The Karnataka government on Tuesday added students and working professionals travelling overseas for employment in the preferential groups for COVID-19 vaccination.

Deputy Chief Minister Dr C Ashwath Narayan, who is also the head of the state covid Task Force, launched the vaccination drive at the administrative block of Bengaluru Central University, under which the vaccination certificate will be linked with the passport of the new preferential groups.

"Earlier, vaccination confirmation was not attached with the passport but with the PAN card and Adhar card. But now, to facilitate the students and employees going abroad it has been linked with passport. About 300 people took the vaccine today. This will continue," Narayan told reporters here after the launch of the vaccination campaign.

The minister informed that considering the interest of these groups, the minimum time gap between Covishield shots has been reduced from 12 weeks to slightly below 6 weeks. "But, further decrease in this time gap will not be possible as vaccination becomes ineffective," he said.

Answering a query pertaining to the availability of drugs for mucormycosis (black fungus), Narayan admitted that there was a shortage of liposomal amphotericin which is in demand as a drug of choice, but he pointed out that there were other drugs available to treat the fungal disease.

He also informed that tender for 1 lakh vials of liposomal amphotericin has been floated. "In addition to this measures have been taken to procure 3 lakh emulsion amphotericin, 22,000 other injections, and tablets," the Minister said.

Talking about the lockdown restrictions in the state, Narayan said, "The government will take a feasible decision with regard to the continuation or easing of lockdown restrictions based on experts' opinion and facts and figures."

"There is a possibility of the positivity rate dropping down if testing is done in 1:10 ratio (for each positive case 10 contacts to be tested). But whatever the case, the decision with regard to lockdown will be taken by the government after considering experts' opinions and thorough discussion," he added.

( With inputs from ANI )

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