BENGALURU: The state began administering the second dose of the vaccine on Monday, inoculating 10,060 beneficiaries. About 4.1 lakh — about 51% — of the healthcare workers who registered for the vaccine, have taken the first dose.
The turnout on Monday was the highest in Vijayapura district where 1,718 beneficiaries took the second dose, followed by Kodagu (1,145). In Bengaluru, 961 healthcare workers took the second dose.
However, vaccinators say the challenge is to convince those who suffered minor adverse events after the first dose to take the second.
At Nimhans, where the second dose was being administered, 152 of the 200 beneficiaries scheduled for the jab, took the second dose, including director Dr G Gururaj.
“Between January 16 and 18, 300 staffers took the first dose,” said Dr Shashidhara N, nodal officer for Covid vaccination in Nimhans. “There were again glitches with the CoWIN portal and details of recipients of the first dose were not showing up. However, we used the option ‘allot beneficiaries’ and added them.”
The Covishield fact sheet says if a person had a severe allergic reaction after a previous dose of the vaccine, s/he should not take the second dose. Several healthcare workers who had developed bodyache, fever, vomiting, nausea and headache post the first dose are afraid of taking the second dose.
“It is a challenge to get all of them inoculated again,” said a nodal officer in a medical college.
However, Dr MK Sudarshan, chairperson, Covid technical advisory committee, said the only those who had severe allergic reactions after the first dose should avoid the second dose. Those who had mild side effects must not miss out on the second dose.
“Those who have doubts can consult their doctors. Mild symptoms of fever and body ache should not be associated with severe AEFI,” Dr Sudarshan said.
Dr Shashidhara also said some Nimhans staffers are concerned about the interval between doses. A leading infectious diseases specialist said it’s a concern throughout the medical community.
“Interim guidelines issued by the World Health Organization on February 10 states that the ideal gap for those being administered Covishield, developed by Astra-Zeneca and Oxford University, must be 8 to 10 weeks,” the specialist said. “Healthcare workers are aware of it. On a personal note, it is better for us to delay and take it around the 10th week.”