Please complete all your vaccine doses, urges Health Minister Sudhakar

Bengaluru: "Please ensure that all your vaccination doses are completed at the earliest," urged Health Minister K Sudhakar after a meeting with the Covid-19 Technical Advisory Committee amid a rise in of cases of the XE variant of Covid-19 in some foreign countries.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, after the meeting Minister Sudhakar stated that there was an increase XE variant Covid-19 cases in 8 different countries including China, Hong Kong, South Korea, UK and Germany. Additionally, he also stated that there was an increase of XE cases in Delhi and Haryana.

After the meeting Sudhakar said that the TAC has suggested thermal screening, strict surveillance, mandatory quarantine for a period of 7-10 days for passengers arriving from these eight countries. Govt will soon release guidelines regarding this. Additionally, he urged people to wear masks, stating that IIT Kanpur has predicted another Covid-19 wave around June and July.

He stressed on the fact that many haven't completed their second dose. "4.77 crore (98 per cent) of people under the 60+ category have taken the second dose of Covid-19 vaccine and only 49 per cent of people have taken their precautionary dose. There already is a declined immunity in this age group. I urge everyone to please complete all doses," Minister Sudhakar said.

"Some have blamed the government for the Covid-19 wave and shortage of vaccine in the past. Now, there is an adequate supply and we have made several requests to people to take the vaccine. People should take the vaccine and cooperate with the government," he added. He said that among the 15-17 age group, 25,11,407 people out of 30,00,000 had taken the vaccine amounting to 79 per cent and only 65 per cent had taken the second dose. Among the 12-14 age group, only 13,96,000 children have received the vaccine out of 20,00,000 amounting to 69 per cent. He urged parents to have their children vaccinated. As there are no vaccines for young kids, Sudhakar said that 5000 children will be tested across the state as per the recommendation of the TAC.

Price cap must be followed

We have received complaints of some hospitals overcharging for vaccines. The government will not tolerate this. A high-level meeting has been held and committee has been formed in this regard. The capped prices for CT scans, MRI etc. must be considered as the new prices for future and not just for Covid-19.

All officers have been given instructions in this regard. Labs should not charge higher cost than the cap fixed by the government. If this rule is violated, the government has the right to revoke the license of the lab or hospital," he said.