Karnataka news live: Mandya district struggles to cope with shortage

Health workers in Mandya district may have to pause the vaccination drive as the stock of Covid-19 vaccines is running low and the effort may have to be completely stopped from Wednesday. According to sources, almost all Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and taluk hospitals were running low on stock and barely a few thousands doses were available in these facilities. District Health Officer Dr HP Manchegowda said 10,500 vaccines were available on Tuesday with the daily requirement between 8,000 and 10,000 vaccines. “If we don’t receive vaccines quickly from Punebased Serum Institute of India, we could have to stop the drive from March 24,” he said. Manchegowda said health officers are rationing the available vials between hospitals and even borrowing from neighbouring districts. However, on Tuesday, the entire stock plummeted to a new low and health workers were not able to vaccinate many senior citizens who turned up for the jab.

Industries that refuse to hire locals will face strict action, including losing government concessions and incentives, the BS Yediyurappa administration said on Tuesday. Industries minister Jagadish Shettar informed the legislative council that the new industrial policy made it mandatory for companies enjoying government benefits to reserve all group D posts and 70 per cent of C and B positions for Kannadigas. Roles like peons, helpers and office assistants come under group D, while supervisors, managers and shift in-charges fall in C and B categories. “If any industry violates this norm, the government will act against them and withdraw facilities given to them,” he said, adding that his department was conducting surprise checks. The government includes the condition of giving priority to locals in its agreements with industries.

Weeks before the bypolls in three constituencies, chief minister BS Yediyurappa has issued orders to release Rs 80 crore in additional funding for various religious institutions, including mutts, in the state. Nearly Rs 8 crore will go to institutions in Belagavi district alone and the money will be used to build community halls and other facilities. The Belagavi Lok constituency and Basavakalyan and Maski assembly segments will go to the polls on April 17. Overall, funds have been allocated to more than 470 religious institutions spread across 31 districts. The highest number — 146 — is in Shivamogga, the chief minister’s home district. A total of Rs 15.3 crore will be split among them. Forty-two institutions are in Udupi, 26 in Haveri and 25 in Hassan. Yediyurappa is known for periodically offering government funds to temples and mutts for repairs and other works. The practice began in 2008, the year he took office for the first time. Political observers say the size of the grants may be relatively small, but the gesture helps him win influence and goodwill among various communities. In 2019, an allocation of Rs 70 crore was made for mutts in the budget.

The sex CD case allegedly involving former minister Ramesh Jarkiholi disrupted proceedings of the legislative assembly for the second day on Tuesday. The opposition Congress continued its protest in the well of the House, demanding an inquiry monitored by the chief justice of the Karnataka high court. Repeated adjournments marred proceedings as Congress members prevented any business from taking place by shouting slogans and the government not heeding their demands. Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri’s efforts to call a meeting of floor leaders were in vain. Congress demanded that Jarkiholi be booked for rape.

Our aim is to vaccinate as many people as possible and as quickly as possible,” health minister K Sudhakar told TOI. “We are ramping up vaccination centres to about 3,500 and have set a target to administer 3 lakh doses a day. As coverage also depends on people’s participation, we are trying to beat vaccine hesitancy by spreading awareness among people.” On whether the state has enough doses to meet these targets, he said the next tranche is expected to arrive in the first or second week of April. Allaying fears of a shortage, he said: “We have so far received 38,85,060 doses — 33,19,760 of Covishield and 5,65,300 of Covaxin — and efforts are on to obtain the next tranche as early as possible.” Also, from just 62,203 people as on March 13, the number of people above 45 years with comorbidities who have got the vaccine has jumped to more than 3.3 lakh. From a daily average of about 4,700 in the first two weeks of the vaccination drive, the state has covered about 30,000 such people daily in the past nine days, adding 2.7 lakh. Bengaluru Urban tops this category too with 53,647 people covered, followed by Ballari (26,128), Bagalkot (20,855), Tumakuru (19,692) and Yadgir (13,825).

Karnataka has administered the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to nearly a quarter of those above 60 years as daily vaccination numbers, which had fallen after a bright start, picked up pace over the past nine days. As of March13, Karnataka had covered 5.9% (3.2 lakh) of the 54.8 lakh targeted people aged 60 years and above at an average of around 24,000 people daily. But in the next nine days, the daily average was more than 1 lakh — over 300% more than the first fortnight — and more than 9.3 lakh people received the vaccine. The targeted population was arrived at based on the 2011 Census, as per the health and family welfare department. As of March 22, over12.5 lakh or 23% of the targeted population received the vaccine. Of these, more than 2.7 lakh are in Bengaluru Urban, followed by Tumakuru (75,652), Mysuru (64,629), Ballari (52,637) and Belagavi (51,746).

Karnataka will receive another four lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccines by air on Wednesday, said K Sudhakar, health minister. Sudhakar told reporters on Tuesday that the state will receive a total 12.5 lakh vaccine doses over the next seven days. “Prior to that, additional stock of four lakh doses will be sent on Wednesday. We have discussed vaccine supply issues with the Centre and the Union health minister has assured us that there will be no shortage of supply,” Sudhakar said. READ FULL STORY

Despite a plethora of Covid-19 infections on campuses across the state and the possibility of a second wave of infections, CN Ashwath Narayana, minister for higher education said regular on-campus classes and exams in all colleges will continue under stricter vigilance. The minister was speaking after a meeting of higher education department officials and brass. READ FULL STORY

Karnataka on Tuesday reported 2,010 fresh Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, breaching the 2,000 mark for the first time in four months. The previous time the state witnessed over 2,000 cases a day was on November 14 with 2,154 infections. Bengaluru alone accounted for over 50% cases, with 1,280 fresh infections. The state’s daily positivity rate stood at 2% and the daily fatality rate was 0.2%. Five Covid deaths were reported on Tuesday, of which three were from Bengaluru and one each from Kalaburagi and Hassan. On Tuesday, more than 1 lakh persons got vaccinated in Karnataka, of which 64,683 were senior citizens. READ FULL STORY