Shot In The Arm: With Over 2 Lakh Jabs, Bengaluru Urban Tops List Of Districts With Most Vaccinations On 21 June

India administered 86.16 lakh vaccine doses in a single day, making it the highest ever single day vaccination in the world so far.

While Karnataka stood second among the states, among districts, Bengaluru Urban topped the list with a total of 2,14,709 vaccine doses administered on 21 June 2021.

Indore stood second in the country, having jabbed 1.86 lakh people yesterday.

Karnataka administered 10.36 lakh jabs as part of the mega vaccination drive called Latika Maha Abhiyana undertaken by the state. It stood second to Madhya Pradesh, which saw 14.71 lakh doses being administered.

Minister for Health and Medical Education, Dr S Sudhakar, said the state aimed to vaccinate every eligible citizen by the end of December and make the state Covid-free.

”We have a stock of about 15 lakh doses of Covishield and 6-7 lakh doses of Covaxin in the state. More than 1.86 crore doses have been administered so far in 13,000 vaccination centres across the state. Even if we achieve 70-80 doses per centre, we will meet our target,” said Sudhakar.

Karnataka’s vaccine drive

So far, of the state’s seven crore population, a total of 1,62,78,437 people have received the first dose and 33,07,968 people have received the second dose.

This means almost one quarter of the state's population has received the first dose so far. Bengaluru tops the list followed by Belagavi, Ballary, Tumakuru, and Mandya in vaccination in the state.

Bengaluru gets jabbed on an ‘accelerated’ basis

The BBMP has set up camps at various parts of the city as part of its 'accelerated vaccination' programme to priority groups of beneficiaries and frontline workers from yesterday.

“In yet another milestone, BBMP has administered as many as 1,68,958 vaccinations, today. It is important to not stop following Covid-appropriate behaviour even if people are vaccinated. Precautions are a must to win the fight against Covid-19,” tweeted Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta.

While it aimed to vaccinate around 65,000 people, the BBMP managed to administer around 1.55 lakh doses of which private hospitals administered 25,000.

"This was possible owing to the several local awareness drives that were conducted by the municipal authorities," said Gupta, as quoted. The BBMP doubled the vaccinators and sought the help of doctors from departments of government hospitals who weren’t on vaccine duty, to help with the single-day vaccination drive.

The BBMP deployed 528 vaccinators (as against the earlier count of 300 session sites) along with a verifier at various sites across the city. In-house vaccinators were also provided for workplace sites, while also mobilising volunteer vaccinators from nursing colleges across the city.

As many as 978 ASHA workers along with 429 auxiliary nurse midwives were entrusted with the task of mobilising eligible beneficiaries with various non-governmental organisations too pitching in to help facilitate the mega drive.

These were monitored by 28 health officers and 8 zonal health officers who toured the city to facilitate the drive.

In a bid to facilitate better handling of the pandemic, the state has decided to hike its contingency fund for Covid from Rs 500 crore to Rs 2,500 crore. It was hiked last year from the previous Rs 80 crore.

But given the need for additional funds to provide for the economic relief package that has been announced since the start of the second wave, an ordinance will be passed for the same, said Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai, as quoted.

The amendment will be a one-time move to mobilise funds to bear Covid expenses, as reported.