Odisha’s SVNIRTAR Frontline Workers Excluded From Vaccination

Cuttack: The healthcare workers (FHWs) at the Swami Vivekanand National Institute of Rehabilitation Training and Research (SVNIRTAR) at Olatpur here have been left out from the state’s vaccination programme despite the authorities submitting a list.

Authorities of the institute had submitted a list of around 1,000 beneficiaries including doctors, staff and students to the district administration for vaccination but they are yet to be considered, The New Indian Express (TNIE) reported.

The exclusion of SVNIRTAR despite the fact that 30 persons including doctors, staff and students of SVNIRTAR were infected by coronavirus last year and a health worker had also succumbed to the infection has caused discontentment at the institute.

In a letter to Kantapada BDO, authorities of the institute had requested him for administering the COVID vaccine to its employees. SVNIRTAR is catering to the need of Divyangs in the field of locomotors disability and during the pandemic, uninterrupted services were provided to the patients.

“It is a matter of great agony and surprise that the Covid warriors and frontline workers of our institute are being deprived of the massive immunization programme of administering Covid vaccine,” the letter stated while requesting the local administration to initiate necessary step to provide the vaccine to its employees at the earliest, TNIE reported.

The authorities have asked for 400 vials of COVID vaccine for the institute, the report added.