Bhubaneswar: Amid suspension of COVID-19 vaccination drive in several districts, Health Minister Naba Das has urged the Centre for supply of at least 25 lakh doses of Covishield in a single lot to Odisha.
In a letter to Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, he on Friday reiterated the state’s request for the vaccine as an emergency to allow second dose vaccination of people aged 45 years and above and regular sessions across the state.
“Till date (30.04.2021), Odisha has received 53,32,870 doses of Covishield vaccine and balance stock available in the pipeline across the state is 1.06 lakh jabs (as on April 29). Between April 20 and 29, the state has received only 2.9 lakh doses of Covishield in three allocations, which is very low in quantity for the state to conduct vaccination sessions smoothly,” he said.
The minister further said that the state had not been able to conduct more than 1100 session sites each day in the recent past and the daily target drastically declined.
Odisha has so far vaccinated 43,02,094 beneficiaries aged 45 years and above with 1st dose and 5,04,358 beneficiaries with 2nd dose. “On April 29, 7,52,590 beneficiaries aged 45 years and above were already due for 2nd dose Covishield, but due to erratic and inadequate supply, we could not vaccinate them in time,” Das added.
According to official sources, the state had 46,220 doses of Covishield and 32,1630 doses of Covaxin till 8 pm on April 30.
While vaccination will remain suspended on the weekends, no sessions have been planned for Boudh, Koraput and Sambalpur districts on Monday (May 3).
So far, 5857532 people have been vaccinated in the state.
