Bengaluru: Karnataka Minister for Health and Medical Education Dr. K. Sudhakar today claimed that the State stands first in South India in vaccination drive.

In a tweet, he said that the drive will move faster as vaccine delivery is picking up, thanks to Government of India support. The State received the following on May 29: 80,000 doses of Covaxin and  2,17,310 doses of Covishield.

India’s Covid-19 vaccination drive is set to accelerate further as the Serum Institute of India ramps up its production capacity to manufacture and supply 9 to 10 crore doses of Covishield as compared to its production capacity of 6.5 crore doses in May.

He said the focus is on the expanded list of frontline workers and vulnerable groups. “The focus now is on institutionalised groups, as it is easier for us to assemble all of them at one single place. While our resources are stretched to the maximum, we are also collaborating with NGOs to help us on the logistics front,” he said.

The vaccination drive in Karnataka has picked up steam over the last 10 days, with the Health Minister stating that the programme is on track with more than 24 lakh doses administered in Bengaluru alone.

As per official data, the daily number of new vaccinations began to rise from May 21, after the scope of frontline workers was expanded to include 22 new professions, including street vendors, prisoners, auto drivers, government transport personnel. May 21 saw the State set a new record in the number of inoculations given on a single day: 2.92 lakh doses. The numbers have since largely averaged 1.88 lakh doses per day over the last 10 days.

However, the number of people in Karnataka who have had both doses of vaccines is still relatively small at 2.72 lakh as on Sunday — which constitutes only 4.1 per cent of the Statewide population, estimated to be 6.5 crore.