Many healthcare staff in Bengaluru have either rejected or faked the Covid-19 vaccine, officials from Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) said on Friday. The municipal body of the state capital confirmed that there were as many as 20 cases registered where healthcare workers did not take the vaccine but claimed to have it.
The healthcare staff in Bengaluru are, according to sources, uncertain about the safety and efficacy of the Covid vaccine and reluctant to take it. Karnataka’s capital city saw 350 of the 475 targeted employees show up for the jabs on the first day of the vaccination campaign, but the numbers have since fallen significantly.
The issues have only further increased with increasing reports of vaccine recipients having adverse side effects and technological difficulties with the CoWin app.
A BBMP official said while speaking to the media, “One medical officer said he did not trust the vaccine and did not want it, so he instructed the nurse to hold a small ball of cotton to his arm to make it look like he took the jab.”
It should be noted that 30,000 beneficiaries were vaccinated alone on Thursday, but a number of fake cases were included. This has been confirmed, notwithstanding the right of healthcare workers to say no to the vaccine.
If a health worker fakes taking the vaccine, their name would be marked in the list as partially full. It will not be successful even if they come around and take the second dose. Therefore, even if they come around and take the second dose.
In Karnataka, as many as 1.39 lakh individuals were inoculated and some had side effects, but there was no loss, State Health Minister Dr. K Sudhakar said on Friday.
Covishield was given at 1.37 lakh and Covaxin at 1.774 lakh.
“Somewhere between two per cent and 3.5 per cent of the people have developed some sort of side-effects,”Somewhere between two percent and 3.5 percent of people have developed some sort of side effects.
He further claimed that in the first process, 8,47,908 lakh individuals were registered for vaccination, of which 3,27,201 were government health workers and 4,45,389 private workers.
Sudhakar said the state would soon receive another 1,46,240 Covaxin doses.
Stating that some people hesitate in taking the vaccine due to rumours, he insisted upon the public not to pay heed to them. The vaccine keeps the infection away, he said.
He said the government has a big challenge of vaccinating between 1.5 crore and two crore people in the state.
