Odisha Health Official Hints At Night Curfew If Cases Continue To Rise

Bhubaneswar: With the scare of COVID-19 resurgence staring in the face of Odisha, the health department authorities have hinted at night curfew in case of rise in infections.

Asking people to be aware and alert to prevent the resurgence of coronavirus, Health & Family Welfare Director Bijay Panigrahi said motels and hotels besides some functions witness large gatherings at night and there is a need to restrict these activities to check COVID-19.

He hoped that the people would follow the guidelines and help the government in restricting the virus from putting a pause on lives again.

While thermal screening of people visiting the state from 6 identified states is being done at present at the entry point, if necessity arises RT-PCR tests would also be conducted, Panigrahi added.

Informing about the vaccination process he said, “priority will be given to immunise elderly in those districts where we are seeing a rise in COVID-19 infections”

The state is scheduled to receive CoviShield vaccine at 4 pm today, he added.

Also Read: Odisha To Receive Another 3.70 Lakh Doses Of Covishield Today

He said so far 18,81,906 healthcare persons, frontline workers and Covid warriors have been vaccinated. Of them 10,18,442 are senior citizens.

Informing about the extension of time-gap between the first and second jab Panigrahi said the second dose which earlier used to be administered after 38 days can be stretched till 6 to 8 weeks for enhanced effectiveness. The Centre has further stated that second vaccine shot taken after 6 weeks is more effective, Panigrahi said.

It may be mentioned here that the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) and National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC) have agreed to increase the gap between the two doses on the back of scientific evidence.

After recommendations were made, the Union Health Ministry has also agreed to it. However, this is only applicable for Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield and not Bharat Biotech-ICMR’s Covaxin.