Odisha might face COVID-19 vaccine scarcity from March 31, urges Centre to produce satisfactory doses

By Express News Service
BHUBANESWAR: Odisha might face scarcity of COVID-19 vaccine for a minimum of 4 days from March 31 if the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry doesn’t provide satisfactory vaccine doses in time.

Even because the State acquired 3.7 lakh doses on Tuesday and 9.8 lakh doses extra are anticipated on April 2, the Health officers feared scarcity of vaccines from March 31 to April 3 because the accessible inventory will final until March 30.

As the Centre has accepted vaccination of all residents above 45 years throughout the nation from April 1, the state authorities has sought satisfactory provide of COVID-19 vaccine to the State on the earliest.

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Additional Chief Secretary (Health) PK Mohapatra stated that Odisha is inoculating a couple of lakh beneficiaries on a regular basis. “Though the plan is to step up it to two lakh vaccinations per day, we are unable to do so due to less vaccine supply,” he stated.

Taking under consideration the accessible inventory of Covishield vaccine (8.2 lakh doses), the state can conduct periods easily as much as March 30. “Even if we get the subsequent allocation of 9.8 lakh doses of Covishield on April 2, we will still have no vaccines from March 31 to April 3. The Union Health Ministry has been urged to supply adequate doses of Covishield vaccine in time so as to continue uninterrupted vaccination drive in the state,” he added.

So far, 19,60,719 doses of vaccines have been administered the State. While 3,10,083 healthcare staff have acquired first dose and a couple of,50,705 second dose, 1,81,415 frontline staff have gotten first dose and 1,27,732 second dose.

Similarly, 10,30,815 senior residents and 59,969 folks, aged 45 plus with comorbidities have taken first dose. Meanwhile, the vaccine wastage charge within the State now stands at 0.24 per cent, which is among the lowest within the nation and far beneath the admissible norm of 10 per cent wastage.

The districts with greater than two per cent wastage are Sundergarh (9.5 per cent), Kandhamal (6.4 per cent), Nayagarh (4.6 per cent), Gajapati (2.5 per cent) and Ganjam (2.1 per cent). The wastage in Sundargarh is greater than that of the nationwide common of 6.5 per cent.

The Health division has requested the districts with excessive wastage charge to make sure optimum use of vaccine and lower down the wastage beneath one per cent.