As per the official statement of the Govt of Karnataka, a special aircraft from Pune will carry 13.90 lakh doses of Covishield in the state and would be sent to the state vaccination centres.
13.90 lakh doses of Covishield, produced by the Serum Institute of India and developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca will make its way to Karnataka for the vaccination drive to commence from Jan 16.
Dr Sudhakar said Healthcare workers will be given the vaccine on priority. It will take 2 months to vaccinate the public.
About 11.34 lakh doses will be stored at the state’s primary vaccine stores in Bengaluru and the remaining 2.5 lakh doses will be stored at the secondary vaccine store in Belagavi and further distributed to eight district vaccine stores.
From Belagavi, they will be sent to 29 block vaccine stores and 671 cold-chain points in Bagalkot, Gadag, Koppal, Vijayapura, Dharwad, Haveri, and Uttara Kannada districts.
Karnataka has 2,855 cold chain points and 28,427 vaccination centers. 9,807 experienced vaccinators have also been identified for the process.
In the first round, only designated persons including 6.3 akh health workers from the government and private sector will be administered the vaccine.