The Karnataka government has announced a special COVID19 vaccination drive on September 17. As part of which the government will administer 2.5-3 million vaccine doses that day. This special campaign was announced by Chief Minister (CM) Basavaraj Bommai yesterday on September 14.

“We are organising a special vaccination drive on September 17 in all districts including Bengaluru (state capital). I have held a video conference with Deputy Commissioners of districts regarding this. Our aim is to administer maximum vaccines this month, so it has been decided to conduct such special drives,” Bommai was quoted as saying. Interestingly, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in Karnataka has organised the campaign on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday on September 17.

Meanwhile, the CM also announced that the government aims to vaccinate its entire adult population against COVID19 by the end of November this year. Bommai has directed officials to ensure that all those aged 18 and above are vaccinated in 10 weeks from now.

“The target is to inoculate about 15 lakh (1.5 million) people every week,” the CM was quoted as saying. In view of this, the state government has requested the Union Government to supply the required 30 million doses during the period. For the campaign, private colleges, medical and nursing colleges will be roped in.

So far, more than 48 million vaccine doses have been administered in the state. The government data suggests that there is a drop of 75 per cent in COVID19 vaccinations in the state in the past two weeks. On September 1, the state administered 1,248,818 vaccine doses. This reduced to 305,871 on September 14.

Till now, more than 764 million vaccine doses have been administered in the country.