Odisha urges Centre again to allocate 20 lakh doses of Covid vaccine

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government today requested the Centre again to provide at least 15 to 20 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine for smooth vaccination sessions in coming days.

Additional Chief Secretary of Health and Family Welfare department PK Mohapatra, in a letter to the Secretary of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, reiterated the Centre must provide the Covishield vaccine to the State immediately to ensure timely administration of second dose of vaccine.

As on April 6 (10.00 AM), the State government had stock of 3,47,180 doses of Covishield and 1,36,820 doses of Covaxin vaccine with peripheral Cold Chain Points. Presently, there is NIL stock of Covishield vaccine in all regional and district vaccine stores in the State. In addition to this, the State has received 3, 49,130 doses of Covishield today afternoon, which will be distributed soon, the letter read.

“With the available stock in the State and current trend of vaccination coverage by the districts, we can conduct vaccination sessions in the State for another three days only. After that, there will be stock out of Covishield vaccine in the entire State,” Mohapatra stated.

Odisha has already administered more than 35.67 lakh doses of vaccine to Health Care Workers, Front line Workers and Citizens 45 years and above. Since April 1, 2021, the average vaccination coverage of the State is more than 2.31 lakh per day.