Bengaluru: 12 lakh eligible people yet to take second dose of Covid-19 vaccine

Karnataka health authorities have asked people who are eligible for the second dose to avail it on account of the emergence of the Omicron variant of coronavirus in various parts of the world.

“45 lakh people are due for the second dose in Karnataka but they are not coming forward. One dose doesn’t protect you from Covid, get the second dose before it’s too late,” state Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar said on social media on Monday.

A total of 4.45 crore people have received the first dose in Karnataka and 2.91 crore people both doses, as per official data. More than 80 per cent of the state population has received the first dose. In Bangalore city, 80.8 lakh people have received their first doses while 58.5 lakh have been fully vaccinated.

The state government has also written to the Centre seeking booster doses for frontline workers who were the earliest to receive vaccines.

Karnataka health officials have meanwhile said that they would have some clarity by December 1 on the variant of the virus detected in a traveller from South Africa who arrived in Bengaluru in mid-November.

The state health minister stated on Monday that the variant was different from Delta that has been the predominant strain in recent months in India.

“A second confirmatory genome sequencing is being carried out, ” a health department official said.