COVID-19 vaccines will be available in Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and Community Health Centres (CHCs), besides more private hospitals empanelled under the State’s health insurance schemes, from Monday.
Under the second phase, senior citizens and those above 45 years with comorbidities are being covered and the demand has been high.
State Health Commissioner K.V. Trilok Chandra told The Hindu that all the 2,300 PHCs and over 60 CHCs are being readied to start the vaccination programme from Monday.
Also, all private hospitals empanelled under CGHS, Ayushman Bharat-Arogya Karnataka health scheme and other State health insurance schemes will be allowed to operate as COVID-19 vaccination centres in a phased manner. “We have identified the hospitals and mapped them with the nearest cold chain points to ensure seamless flow of vaccines to them,” he said.
“We had an orientation programme for all our health officials today to prepare them for taking up the programme. We will have more such sessions before starting the programme,” he said.
In the initial phase, the department had permitted all taluk and district hospitals and two identified private hospitals from each district apart from 18 private health facilities from BBMP.
Vaccination was done only for online registered beneficiaries in urban areas and both on-site and online in rural areas for the first two days. While on-site registration was opened up in Bengaluru on the third day, it has now been permitted in all urban areas.
Total vaccinations
Meanwhile, as many as 10,525 senior citizens and 1,5,61 above 45 years with comorbidities got vaccinated on Thursday. Cumulatively, Bengaluru Urban recorded the highest numbers — 13,270 and 1,623 — respectively in both these categories.
Overall, from Monday onwards when the drive began, a total of 33,632 senior citizens and 5,179 above 45 years with comorbidities have been vaccinated.
So far, a total of 4,51,007 healthcare workers and 1,64,194 frontline workers have taken the first dose of vaccination. As many as 2,20,566 healthcare workers have taken the second dose.
