Odisha Braces For COVID-19 Vaccination Of Elderly

Bhubaneswar: Soon after the announcement by the Centre on COVID-19 vaccination of the elderly population and persons with co-morbidities from March 1, the Odisha Government on Wednesday directed the district administrations and civic bodies to start the preparatory activities.

In a letter to the district collectors and Municipal commissioners of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur, Sambalpur and Rourkela, Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra said all the public health facilities from tertiary-level, medical colleges and hospital, districts headquarters hospitals, sub-divisional hospitals, CHCs, PHCs, health and wellness centers and sub-centers etc should be prepared for offering COVID-19 vaccination services.

They have been directed to complete these works by February 28.

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He also directed the officials to take up the following steps for planning:

—Session shall be planned for five days in a week (excluding Sunday).
—Alternate vaccinators and verifiers shall be identified and trained for COVID-19 vaccination.
— For conducting sessions at the sub-centre level in a planned manner, 6-7 mobile vaccination teams in each block/urban unit shall be formed.
—Health institutions i.e. PHC/UPHC up to medical colleges & hospitals shall also be identified as session sites.
—ANM from the regular health system shall not be engaged for vaccination as they will provide uninterrupted routine health services.
—Block-wise micro plan shall be prepared for session plan, vaccine and logistic supply, mobility support for vaccination team etc.
—Laptop/desktop shall be provided at the session sites for updating vaccination status and issue of vaccination certificate.

Mohapatra also asked the officials to ensure that all such facilities shall be mapped to specific cold chain points to maintain the effective supply of vaccines and logistics for vaccination.