Karnataka reports 35,297 Covid cases; Severe vaccine shortage continues

Reversing over the month-long trend, new Covid cases in Karnataka declined to 35,297 in a day, while deaths due to the infection reduced to 344 during the day, said the state health bulletin on Thursday.

"Against 39,998 positive cases on Tuesday, new cases registered on Wednesday declined to 35,297, taking the state's Covid tally of cases to 20,88,488, including 5,93,078 active cases, while recoveries rose to 14,74,678, with 34,057 discharged in the last 24 hours," said the bulletin.

As epi-centre of the pandemic in the state, Bengaluru reported 15,191 fresh cases, taking its Covid tally of cases to 10,14,996, including 3,59,565 active cases, while 6,46,305 recovered, with 16,084 discharged during the day.

Deaths due to the infection also declined to 344 in the last 24 hours from 517 on Wednesday across the state, taking its death toll to 20,712, while 161 patients succumbed to the virus in Bengaluru, taking its toll to 9,125 since the pandemic broke out in mid-March a year ago.

Among districts where positive cases were above 1,000 are 1,865 in Ballari, 1,798 in Tumakur, 1,260 in Mysuru, 1,153 in Mandya and 1,079 in Bengaluru Rural, with the rest spread in the remaining 25 districts across the state. Out of 1,27,668 tests conducted across the state during the day, 10,311 were through rapid antigen detection and 1,17,357 through RT-PCR method.

Positivity rate marginally dipped to 29.64 per cent and case fatality rate to 0.97 per cent across the state on Wednesday. Meanwhile, 68,658 people, including 37,724 above 45 years of age and 24,135 in the 18-44 years age group were vaccinated across the state during the day.

"Cumulatively, 1,09,76,189 beneficiaries, including healthcare workers, frontline warriors and senior citizens above 60 years of age received the jab since the nationwide vaccination drive was launched on January 16 across the southern state," added the bulletin.

Vaccine shortage continues

The Karnataka government on Thursday decided to float a global tender to procure 2 crore additional Covid vaccines to bridge the gap between demand and supply. "We have already placed a purchase order for 3 crore vaccine doses -- 2 crore doses of Covishield and 1 crore doses of Covaxin," Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa told reporters, adding that Karnataka will float a global tender to procure for 2 crore additional doses.

"Overall, our objective is to procure 5 crore doses for the 18-44 age group. Therefore, we have placed a purchase order for 3 crore doses and have also decided to float a global tender to procure 2 crore additional doses," the Chief Minister said.

Gagan Kang as Vax adviser

Yediyurappa also said that the state government has decided to appoint noted virologist Gagandeep Kang as an adviser on vaccination strategy. "She (Kang) is a member of several advisory committees for the World Health Organization (WHO), mainly related to research and use of vaccines," Yediyurappa said.

Kang played a significant role in the efforts that culminated in the development of Rotavac, a vaccine from Bharat Biotech International that targets diarrhoea. According to the Chief Minister, the Union government has supplied 1.10 crore doses to the state, of which 99.5 lakh are Covishield while 10.9 lakh are Covaxin vaccines.

He said that about 14.87 lakh beneficiaries have completed six weeks after taking the first dose of Covishield and are eligible for the second shot, whereas 5.10 lakh beneficiaries have completed four weeks after taking the first jab of Covaxin.

The Chief Minister said that it is necessary to complete the second dose as early as possible to give full protection to the people who have taken the first shot. "Therefore, we have decided to utilise the entire stock available with us for administering the second dose to the eligible beneficiaries. A total of 19.97 lakh people were eligible for the second dose as on May 12," he said.

The state government had on Wednesday announced suspension of the vaccination drive for the 18-44 age group due to shortage of vaccines. It said the available stock will be used to vaccinate people who are due for the second dose.

IISc working on new vaccine

The premier Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is developing a low-cost oxygen concentrator and anti-Covid vaccine, Karnataka Health Minister K. Sudhakar said on Thursday.

"IISc researchers are designing a low-cost and efficient oxygen concentrator and developing a vaccine for treating Covid patients," said Sudhakar after a virtual interaction with the state-run institute's Director Govindan Rangarajan.

The Director also said the vaccine under development at the institute showed better neutralising effect than other vaccines in use. "The vaccine being developed in our institute can be stored at room temperature (30 degrees Celsius), which enables the government to scale-up its distribution," he said.

On its website, the institute mentioned that the vaccine was being developed by Mynvax start-up, incubated by its society of innovation and development. "The project needs Rs 15 crore fund to conduct further studies like creating the first-generation vaccine candidate in the next four months, production technology in eight months and to initiate Phase 1 human trials in 12 months," it said.

The goal is to develop a rapidly producible vaccine for protection of frontline health workers, senior citizens and individuals with co-morbidities such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, the IISc said. The start-up estimates 100 million doses to meet the country's requirements of the pandemic persists in the medium to long-term.