COVID-19 vaccinations in Karnataka breached the 10-lakh mark and touched 10,57,677 on Tuesday. This number includes vaccination of healthcare and frontline workers apart from senior citizens and those above 45 years with comorbidities.

While 44% of the total vaccinations are the first dose shots given to healthcare workers, 24% are second doses. Frontline wokers contribute to nearly 16% of the total vaccinations.

Although innoculations for healthcare workers form a major chunk of the total vaccinations, vaccine hesitancy in this group has posed a major challenge. However, this hesitancy turned into vaccine eagerness when the vaccination was rolled out for senior citizens and those aged above 45 years with comorbidities from March 1.

To meet the rush, the State Health Department that had initially started vaccinated centres in all district and taluk hospitals apart from two private hospitals in every district and 18 hospitals in Bengaluru expanded the programme and set up vaccination centres in 3,000 facilities in the second week itself.

As many as 1,37,548 senior citizens have been vaccinated in the State since March 1. That apart, 23,236 persons above 45 years with comorbidities have been vaccinated so far.

On Tuesday, as many as 26,385 senior citizens and 4,814 above 45 years with comorbidities took the jab. Cumulatively, Bengaluru Urban has recorded the highest numbers – 55,408 and 6,888 – respectively in both these categories.

So far, a total of 4,67,666 healthcare workers and 1,69,135 frontline workers have taken the first dose of vaccination. As many as 2,56,404 healthcare workers have taken the second dose.

590 cases, 6 deaths

Karnataka on Tuesday reported 590 new cases of COVID-19, taking the total to 9,56,041. Of these, 363 cases are from Bengaluru Urban alone. With six deaths, the toll rose to 12,373. This is apart from 19 deaths of patients due to non-COVID-19 reasons.

As many as 366 persons were discharged on Tuesday, taking the total recoveries to 9,36,616. Of the remaining 7,033 active patients, 115 are being monitored in ICUs. While the positivity rate for the day stood at 0.88%, the Case Fatality Rate (CFR) touched 1.01%.

As many as 66,426 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, including 61,779 RT-PCR tests. With this, the total number of tests rose to 1,94,27,973.