Karnataka Health Minister says he will volunteer for vaccination if Centre permits

Karnataka Health Minister KSudhakar on Sunday said he would be the first person in thestate to be administered the vaccine during phase-I plannedfor health workers, if the central government allowed publicrepresentatives also to be covered.

''The first batch to take the Covaxin will be thehealthcare workers, but if the Government of India allows usto take, I will be the first to get it as a health Minister,''Sudhakar told reporters during the inspection of the statevaccine store here.

Stressing that volunteering for the vaccine was necessaryto instill confidence among the people, he said, ''See, we haveto imbibe, infuse confidence in the public. So, why not (Itake it)?'' On the vaccine storage facility, Sudhakar said the statehas two major vaccine storage houses -- one in Bengaluru andanother one in Belagavi.

They have storage capacity of 45 lakh doses of vaccines.

Besides, there are five regional and district levelstorage facilities, the minister said adding the state hasalso roped in 900 logistic vehicles to transport vaccines tovarious parts of the state.

The Minister noted that the state would get about 13.9lakh doses of vaccine in the first phase.

To a question on the challenges faced during the dryruns, Sudhakar said he noticed at certain places digital andtechnical lacunae, where the OTPs did not reach to the rightperson from the nodal officer.

Now, it has been rectified, he added.

The Minister further said the Prime Minister will beholding a meeting with all the Chief Ministers on Monday toreview the preparedness for vaccination drive.

According to Sudhakar, the priority will be frontlinehealth workers.

The focus will then shift towards vulnerable groups suchas people above 50 years of age with co-morbidities andyoungsters.

Regarding those who returned to the state from the UnitedKingdom recently, the minister said a system for effectivemanagement of data of passengers arriving at airports has beenput in place.

He added that on Sunday 289 passengers arrived here fromthe UK and four among them have been found positive forcoronavirus.

''Infected persons will be traced and admitted tohospital,'' he added.