Karnataka’s active cases have crossed 14,000, the state health department said.
Karnataka recorded more than 1,400 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours, taking the total number of active infections in the state to over 14,000, the state health department said on Monday.
The capital city, Bengaluru, is witnessing a huge surge in cases and accounts for the maximum number of cases in the state. As per the latest data, Bengaluru Urban registered as many as 886 new cases in a day – more than half of the total cases reported from the state.
The state government is making efforts to increase vaccination and setting up of three new covid care centres in Bengaluru to battle the surge.
The state recently sought the centre’s permission to take the vaccination process to apartments and old-age homes. The Centre turned this request down, citing vaccination protocols.
Having witnessed a wastage rate of around 6 per cent so far, the state has also directed the private facilities to only administer the vaccine to eligible candidates.
“I am sure wastage is very less. When we have given it to the private sector – I would appeal to the private sector to ensure that they inoculate only the eligible people,” state Health Minister K Sudhakar told media.
“I have heard that some ineligible people are seeking the help of the private setups and getting inoculated. That is why I think you are seeing 6 to 6.5% (wastage) in Karnataka. But still when you compare to other states, we are still less. But as our honourable Prime Minister said, even 1% should not be wasted,” he added.
He also tried to clear doubts about the safety of vaccines – and said it was not possible to give people a choice in the vaccines they would get.
“All vaccines are good. All vaccines are safe. All vaccines are effective,” he said. “It is too early for us to have the choice. At the moment because of the shortfall, we can’t have choice. Once production capacity increases, things will be sorted out.”
The nationwide tally of coronavirus cases reached 1,16,86,796 today, with the addition of 40,715 coronavirus cases in a day, while the active caseload surged to 3,45,377, the health ministry said.
The active caseload now comprises 2.96 per cent of the total infections, while the recovery rate has further dropped to 95.67 per cent, the ministry data updated at 8 am stated.