Odisha Govt Writes To Centre Again For Supply Of Covishield Vaccine

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Friday shot off another letter to the Centre, seeking 25 lakh doses of Covishield to make prime minister’s ‘Tika Utsav’ successful.

In a letter to Health Ministry, Additional Chief Secretary, Health & Family Welfare department PK Mohapatra said Odisha has already administered more 39,84,878 doses of vaccine to health care workers, frontline workers and citizens of 45 years & above till date.

“The overall performance of our state is more than national average in all categories of targeted beneficiaries,” Mohapatra said.

Stating that the state is prepared to undertake 3 lakh vaccinations daily, he said due to extremely low supply of vaccines, close to two thirds of vaccination centres have been closed. Several districts are now in stock-out situation and are unable to continue the vaccination programme. The issue has been raised repeatedly with Health Ministry earlier but remains unaddressed.

The letter further said it was informed during the the video conference of the Prime Minister with chief ministers on April 8 that ‘Tika Utsav’ will be celebrated in the entire country from to April 11 to 14.

“You are therefore requested to allocate at least 25 lakh doses of Covishield to Odisha immediately to make the “Tika Utsav” more successful in our state and also improve the vaccination coverage in coming days,” the letter said.