Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has directed officials to keep over 3,000 vaccination centres ready, where children in the 5-12 age group can be administered COVID-19 shots.
The move comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during a virtual meeting with chief ministers to review the COVID-19 situation in the country, stressed on the importance of vaccinating children. Interacting with the CMs — including Odisha’s Naveen Patnaik — the PM said vaccination of all eligible children at the earliest was a priority for the Central government.
“Since the PM insisted that all eligible children are a priority, we expect the guidelines for the vaccination will be issued by the Health Ministry shortly. We are getting ready with the infrastructure. The drive will start once the vaccines are received,” Dr Bijay Panigrahi, Director of Family Welfare, said.
The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has granted restricted emergency use authorisation for Biological E’s COVID-19 vaccine Corbevax for the 5-12 age group and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for children from six to 12 years.
Odisha has around 59.43 lakh children in the 5-12 age group.
Odisha reports 7 COVID cases
Meanwhile, Odisha reported 7 COVID cases on Thursday, including one case in the 0-18 age group testing positive for the virus in the last 24 hours.
According to the I & PR Department, 4 cases are from quarantine and 3 from local contacts.
Here’s the district-wise details of cases:
- Jajpur: 1
- Kalahandi: 1
- Kandhamal: 1
- Kendrapada: 1
- Khurda: 2
- Sambalpur: 1
With 20,436 samples tested in the last 24 hours, the Test Positivity Rate (TPR) stood at 0.03 per cent.
Odisha has 80 active cases as of Thursday.
Also read: https://odishabytes.com/meeting-with-cms-vaccination-of-kids-priority-says-pm-modi/
Also read: https://odishabytes.com/govt-panel-approves-use-of-corbevax-covid-vaccine-among-5-12-age-group/
