Bengaluru, Nov 24 (IANS): Karnataka has identified 29,451 vaccination sites and 10,008 vaccinators as per the norms of the Universal Immunization Programme, Karnataka Health and Family Welfare Minister K Sudhakar said here on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters after the Karnataka Task Force members' meeting on the state's preparedness here, the minister said that the state had already initiated the necessary action for Covid-19 vaccine delivery, distribution and administration as per the union government's advice.

"Health Care Workers data has already been compiled for all the government facilities. 80% of the private health facilities have also shared their data. Compilation of data for the remaining 20% private facilities is likely to be completed in a week's time," he informed.

The minister that Karnataka has around 2855 cold chain points for storage and distribution of vaccines. The state government had also proposed setting up three new regional vaccine stores -- Bengaluru Urban, Shivamogga and Bellary, he added.

These newly proposed regional vaccine stores will also require additional walk-in-coolers and walk-in-freezers.

"Karnataka already has 10 walk-in-coolers and four walk-in-freezers. Besides this, the union government is going to supply three walk-in-coolers and two walk-in-freezers for which necessary civil works are being initiated," the minister said.

He added that Karnataka had sought exact information about the total storage capacity required for the vaccines. "We have already requested the union government to provide information to have an exact assessment of the cold storage capacity required for Covid-19 vaccine programme, number of doses in each vial, the volume of a vial etc," he said.

The union government also helped Karnataka to get dry storage facility space assessment for the vaccine programme. "Union government has already allocated certain deep freezers and ice-lined refrigerators as per the Universal Immunization Programme norms," he said.