BENGALURU: Hundreds of sportspersons, including Olympians Anup Sridhar (badminton) and Prakash Nanjappa (shooting), were vaccinated against Covid-19 at the Sree Kanteerava stadium here on Thursday during a special drive organized by the state government.
More than 300 athletes, aged above 18, got their first dose on Thursday. An equally big number will be vaccinated on Friday.
Those who turned up on day one included Priya Mohan (athletics), Shriya B (canoeing), Nishitha D (rowing), Nikhil (shooting) and Bhoomika R Kesarkar (swimming).
“I was waiting for the lockdown to end to be vaccinated. It was then that I was informed about this drive. The camp was organized well and they ensured that there was no crowding. By the time we got out we saw a few hundred waiting for their turn following all the SOPs,” Nanjappa, a former medallist in World Cup shooting, said after receiving the first dose of Covishield.
CAMPAIGN EXTENDED BY A DAY
“We inoculated 380 people today. We had invited only 500 but some could not come as they were not in Bengaluru,” DYES sources said.
“We are going to invite more people tomorrow so that we can vaccinate more than 1,000 people over the next two days,” the sources said, indicating that the camp would be extended by a day. “We are still receiving a lot of requests and that’s why we will continue with the camp on Saturday as well.”
With most of the slots for the first two days already filled up, many state footballers would be hoping to get their first shot on Saturday. “We got in touch with the DYES officials and they said footballers who missed out on June 10 and 11 can hopefully get their first dose on Saturday. We request footballers above 18 and below 45, who have represented the state, to get in touch with the state association at the earliest,” KSFA secretary M Satyanarayan told TOI.
The camp was inaugurated by sports minister KC Narayan Gowda. BBMP commissioner Gaurav Gupta was also present.
