Over 3 Cr People Jabbed With First COVID Dose In Odisha, 70% Fully Vaccinated

Bhubaneswar: Odisha on Saturday reached a milestone of jabbing over 3 crore people with the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, the Health Department informed.

More than 91 per cent of eligible beneficiaries (3,01,55,526) in Odisha have received the first dose. Nationally, it is close to 91 per cent. Odisha is ahead of states like Kerala, Punjab and Telangana in vaccination numbers.

Among the districts, Ganjam leads with 25 lakh people having taken the first dose of the vaccine.

While 5.16 crore cumulative doses of the vaccine have been administered in the state, 2.2 crore people have received both the jabs, according to data available on CoWin.

At 70.65 per cent, Odisha’s double dose vaccination is better than Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

At present, vaccination is being held at 3,453 centres out of which 1,191 are dedicated for eligible teenagers, said Health and Family Welfare Director Dr Bijay Panigrahi.

Notably, Odisha has 3.1 crore beneficiaries and it had set a target to cover the eligible population with at least a single dose of COVID vaccine by the end of 2021.