Karnataka vaccination roll out delayed: Health Minister

Karnataka Health Minister Dr Sudhakar informed that Covid vaccination rollout for those above the age of 18 years would not begin on May 1 as planned earlier.

Bengaluru: Vaccination of people above 18 years of age, which was supposed to start from May 1, may be delayed as the vaccines have not yet arrived, Karnataka Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar said on Friday.

"We have made orders to Serum Institute in Pune for over one crore doses but the official news is that they are still not prepared to give it to us from tomorrow as scheduled," the Minister told reporters here.

" So, that is why we are requesting people of Karnataka especially those in the age range of 18 to 44 years to refrain from going to hospitals thinking that you may get vaccinated tomorrow. We will definitely intimate prior after getting confirmation from the Serum Institute," he said.

He asked people who have enrolled themselves on the Cowin portal for inoculation to refrain from going to vaccination centres on May 1.

The Minister said the government will intimate the eligible people after confirmation from Serum Institute of India about the arrival of vaccines.

"We have already paid Rs 400 crore to purchase one crore doses of Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India in Pune," the Minister said.

According to him, the Serum Institute has the capacity to produce five to six crore doses in a month while the Hyderabad based Bharat Biotech can produce up to 1.5 crore doses.

Russia's Sputnik has given a licence to Dr Reddy's Laboratory to produce the vaccine but they have not informed the government officially when they will be able to supply it.

With inputs from PTI