BENGALURU: Karnataka’s health department and the National Health Mission (NHM) estimate that at least 20% of the state’s population is expected to be vaccinated against Covid-19, soon after the initial phases covering healthcare workers (HCWs) and frontline workers is completed.
Arundathi Chandrashekar, mission director, NHM-Karnataka, told TOI: “There are an estimated 1.2 crore people with comorbidities and aged above 50 years that we are looking at as part of priority inoculation.” That is about 20% of the state’s population.
The Union health ministry and the central government have already said there could be 27 crore people in this category across the country and every state is identifying individuals who fit the category.
Officials said estimates are based on data from an existing door-to-door survey of seniors with comorbidities that was conducted across 30 districts in mid-2020. The survey was conducted to ascertain vulnerable populations that needed to be put on Covid-19 surveillance. Other data, including previous family surveys, has also gone into drawing up estimates.
Pankaj Kumar Pandey, commissioner, health and family welfare department, had told TOI earlier that the state has the wherewithal to even conduct another survey to identify specific kinds of people if the need arises. However, nothing has been cast in stone as of now since the immediate priority is to inoculate healthcare and frontline workers.
As reported earlier, the first phase of the drive is expected to see beneficiaries self-register — on the Co-WIN app, which is an upgraded version of the Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN) initiative used for regular vaccination drives — for inoculation. Modalities are still being tweaked.
Frontline workers
While nearly 6.6 lakh HCWs had registered to receive the vaccine as on Monday, various government departments and ministries, including home, revenue and defence, are collecting data on frontline workers.
TOI had earlier reported that the state government had estimated there would be around five lakh HCWs and 10 lakh frontline workers in Karnataka. The number of frontline workers may be slightly lower since chief minister BS Yediyurappa had said 15 lakh people would be vaccinated under the first two priority categories — HCWs and frontline workers together.
However, the total number for the two categories combined appears to be the same (15 lakh) as reported earlier.
Also, as reported earlier, Karnataka, along with some other states had requested that the priority list be expanded and wanted more people to be included under the frontline workers category. Arundathi had told TOI earlier that many states have asked for additions and that the Centre, at the time, had included only armed forces, DRDO and defence research, police personnel and urban municipal workers as frontline workers.
“We’ve asked that revenue officials, teachers, rural municipality workers and panchayat officials also be included. But the government of India will take the final call based on the recommendations of the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration (NEGVA),” she had said.
Now, the Centre has included revenue officials to the list of frontline workers, but some of the others, including GP workers and teachers remain out of the category. “We will have to wait and see,” one state government official said, pointing out that requests have been made with the Centre to include more.