Bhubaneswar: Despite the Odisha government’s orders for procurement of COVID vaccines for people aged between 18 and 44 years, the Phase III of the vaccination programme is unlikely to kick off on May 1 as announced by the Centre.
The vaccines may not reach Odisha from the manufacturers before May 15. The government has placed an order for 3.77 crore doses of Covishield at Rs 400/dose and 10.34 lakh doses of Covaxin at Rs 600/dose. Odisha will vaccinate a total of 1.93 crore people in the age group of 18 to 44 years and has requested the manufacturers to supply the stock at the earliest.
It is, however, unlikely that the manufacturers — Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech — will be able to produce additional stock to meet the states’ demand as both have been booked by the central government till May 15.
“Though we have written a letter for procurement of the vaccines, Covaxin is likely to reach Odisha only by mid-May. We may not get the doses of Covishield till the end of next month,” said Director, Health and Family Welfare, Bijay Panigrahi
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