Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai will raise the issue of administering a booster dose of the vaccine against COVID-19 to health workers with the Union Health Minister during his visit to New Delhi on December 2.
Addressing mediapersons in Hubballi on December 1, Mr. Bommai said that more than six months had passed after health workers and frontline workers had received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. “The government is contemplating administering booster doses to them. The issue was discussed at the meeting of the task force. Experts feel that a booster dose, or third dose, should be given to frontline workers,” he said.
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The Chief Minister will seek guidance from the Centre on administering a booster dose.
Extra cautious
Mr. Bommai said that going by the previous experience of foreign visitors becoming carriers of the infection, the State Government was extra cautious this time to avoid recurrence of any such incident. “I have already spoken to the Health Minister and directed mandatory testing of visitors to Karnataka at both Bengaluru and Mangaluru airports. They would be tested again after a week to confirm that that there is no infection,” he said.
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He said extra vigil would be maintained at the inter-State borders, especially the Karnataka-Kerala border, to ensure that no infected person enters the State. Students from Kerala are enrolled in various colleges in various districts of Karnataka.
One sample to NCBS
Mr. Bommai said that one swab sample of a foreign visitor had been sent to National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) for further testing as it appears to have a different strain . “The other visitors have tested positive for Delta variant. Further steps will be taken based on result of the test,” he said.
There is no proposal before the government to make vaccination mandatory or to link any of the government facilities or schemes with vaccination. There is no proposal to impose a lockdown again , as people are yet to recover from the ill-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and previous lockdowns.
He said that the COVID-19 pandemic had hindered the work of providing requisite infrastructure to new taluks.