BENGALURU: The Karnataka government's Covid-19 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) has recommended ramping up daily testing numbers in the wake of rising infections in the city.
A member told TOI that the committee has asked the government to increase the daily tests in the state to 30,000 and in the city to 20,000. On June 7, 16,474 tests were conducted across the state.
"The government must urge symptomatic people to come forward for testing," the member said, adding that they have also asked the government to monitor arrivals from neighbouring states of Kerala and Maharashtra, for face masks and vaccination. "However, we have not recommended making vaccination certificates mandatory," he said.
"We have recommended that samples for genome sequencing be sent to Victoria Hospital (microbiology) to expedite the results. The required/requested laboratory personnel shall be provided immediately. We have also asked the government to accelerate precautionary dose vaccination and paediatric vaccination using awareness drives through the media, NGOs, etc," the member said, adding that at just 25% the precautionary dose coverage is shockingly low.
He said the response to pediatric vaccination is also abysmal as parents are hesitant and schools don't want to push parents to get their children vaccinated.
Booster shot numbers not picking up: Doc
Dr Sudarshan MK, chairman of Technical Advisory Committee, rued that booster and pediatric dose numbers are not picking up. "Many doctors, including paediatricians, are not strongly recommending vaccination," he said.
Another member of the committee urged the government to ramp up booster shots for all adults over 18 years as well as provide free doses at government PHCs.
"Many don't want to pay for it at private hospitals. Rather than focusing only on seniors above 60 years, we need everyone to take the booster dose," said the TAC member.
