Curtains go up on COVID-19 vaccination in workplaces; BBMP eyes Bengaluru apartments

BENGALURU: Following the Union Government order, Karnataka Health and Medical Education Minister tweeted that starting April 11, Covid-19 vaccinations will be carried out in all private and government workplaces which have at least 100 eligible beneficiaries above 45 years of age.

The minister’s tweet followed an earlier one which pointed at Karnataka crossing a total of 50 lakh vaccinations across the state.

The Centre’s decision is expected to accelerate the vaccination drive and ensure better coverage, Sudhakar said. Chief Minister B S Yeddiyurappa has also welcomed the move.

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta said although the Centre’s approval on vaccinating people at workplaces came on Wednesday, no official proposals were made by the industrial units, MNCs or other large commercial hubs, though they had been in talks with private hospitals and had expressed the same to the BBMP.

The BBMP will now look at the fine print for residential units too.

Gupta said that some hospitals had already tied up with apartment complexes, but BBMP has not made any tie-ups so far.

Though he said that work on creating such centres will start from Thursday, calling them as sub-centres will still have to be looked into.

However, work on collaboration for apartments with private hospitals had started after a meeting with RWAs held last week. Sudhakar had tweeted, “As of 2 pm on Wednesday, 45,13,857 people have received the first dose of the vaccine and 5,02,838 people have received both doses of vaccine. Vaccines are being distributed in 6,173 sites across the state including 5,564 government and 609 private centres.”