Karnataka health minister says state is ready for COVID vaccination

Karnataka State Health and Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar said, the state is fully prepared for vaccine collection, storage and distribution. Karnataka will get 13.90 lakh doses of vaccines in the first phase.

Speaking to the media after inspecting the state vaccine store in Bengaluru on Sunday, the Minister said that PM Modi will be interacting with the Chief Ministers of all the state through video conference on Monday. The PM had already announced that the vaccination drive will begin on January 16. “Health warriors will get 3 crore doses”, he said.

“We have 2 vaccine storages each in Bengaluru and Belagavi. Apart from this, we have 5 regional storage centres at Chitradurga, Kalburgi, Dakshina Kannada, Mysuru and Bagalakote. We also have a Corporation storage facility in every district, BBMP has 50 blocks and totally we have 2,767 cold chain points. So all these will be utilized to distribute vaccines”, said the minister.

Explaining the system, Dr Sudhakar said that the vaccine will be sent to regional storage centres through 900 vaccine carriers. It will be further distributed to district centres from there. “We have 2 walk-in coolers in Bengaluru where we can store 45 lakh dosages in each cooler. The centre is also providing one walk-in freezer he added. 24 lakh syringes have arrived and we are getting 13.90 lakh dosages of vaccines in the first phase. The state is fully prepared to distribute the vaccine”, he added.