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The Odisha government has ramped up the pace of COVID vaccination drive across the State and is targeting to achieve complete inoculation by December 2021 if the supply of vaccines goes on efficiently without any interruption.
While informing about the current status of the COVID vaccination drive in Odisha, Director of Health and Family Welfare Department, Bijay Panigrahi informed that the immunization process is underway in a smooth manner as the Centre has supplied vaccines over and above the State's share this month.
"Till date, around 2.20 crore Covid jabs have been administered across the State. As many as 1.66 crore (54% of the total figure) beneficiaries have received the first dose of COVID vaccine while 53 lakh individuals have been fully immunized against SARS-nCoV-2," informed Panigrahi.
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Panigrahi further stated that, currently, 28.54 lakh Covishield and 4. 54 lakh Covaxin doses are available in stock.
"All districts have been ordered to prioritize administering second jabs to the beneficiaries. Odisha government has set a deadline for vaccinating all teachers and non-teaching faculties by September 5 for which dedicated vaccination centres have been set up to fulfil the purpose," he said.
As per reports, the vaccination process is underway at over 1400 centres. Over a lakh pregnant women have also been vaccinated till date.
"We are aimed to vaccinate all beneficiaries as soon as possible," said Panigrahi.
On surge in cases of infections among the children and adolescent groups, Panigrahi said that while around 8 % of children were infected during the first wave of COVID, the figure in the second wave stood at 10%. The Government of India has not yet released any guideline to inoculate children above 12 years.
Meanwhile, there is no detailed information about the new variant C-1.2. As per the preliminary reports, the new variant will break through the antibody developed by the vaccine and infect a person. However, the exact behaviour of the variant is not known. No cases with the new variant have been detected so far in the country, Panigrahi stated.
(Edited By Suryakant Jena)
