Vaccination Drive Halted In Over Half Of Odisha Again; 8.4L Covishield Doses To Arrive Today

Bhubaneswar: Vaccine shortage has dealt a blow to the state’s inoculation drive in a campaign mode with 3 lakh vaccinations a day target. Vaccination remained disrupted in over half of Odisha for the second consecutive day on Friday and the situation is unlikely to improve before Monday.

According to the Health Department, no sessions have been planned in 17 districts – Angul, Balangir, Balasore Bhadrak, Boudh, Cuttack, Deogarh, Ganjam, Jajpur, Kandhamal, Kendrapada, Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Nayagarh, Rayagada and Sonepur – on Friday. Of the 102 sessions, 69 are in Bhubaneswar

The state has been grappling with a scarcity of vaccines for the past three days. No inoculation drive was held in 16 districts on Thursday and 11 districts on Wednesday.

A consignment of 1 lakh Covishield arrived in the state on Thursday and another 8.4 lakh doses are expected on Friday.

“The vaccines will be despatched to the districts on Saturday. However, this will take some time,” said Director of Family Welfare Bijay Kumar Panigrahi.

He said that the state has been urging the Centre for vaccines in big volumes as it becomes difficult to dispatch these to districts like Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Koraput, Rayagada and Sundargarh two to three times a week.