The Odisha government will now turn its attention to aggressively vaccinate people against Covid-19 in the rural pockets of the State so that the inoculation exercise can be completed to a large extent before a possible third wave of the pandemic hits the State, Director, Odisha Health and Family Welfare Department, Bijay Panigrahi said on Thursday.
“Around 80 percent of the population in urban areas has been vaccinated, so the government's focus is shifting to rural areas where more number of vaccination centres will be opened to facilitate faster inoculation,” Panigrahi told OTV.
The government is trying its best to vaccinate as many people as possible in the quickest possible time. So far, over 1.71 crore doses have been administered to people, out of which 1.31 crore have received the first jab which make up 42.5 percent of the targeted beneficiaries in the State, he said.
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Similarly, over 40 lakh people have been fully vaccinated with two doses of the vaccine against Covid-19 which is 13.5 percent of the total beneficiaries, the Health Director pointed out.
Panigrahi further informed that a stock of around 15 lakh Covishield and 71 thousand Covaxin vaccine doses are available with the Odisha government as of now.
He further said that since second doses are pending in large numbers, field authorities have been instructed to ensure that 70 percent of vaccines are administered to the beneficiaries who are due for their final jabs at the earliest.
The Health Director said that the target to complete vaccination drive in Odisha within 4 months has not been feasible as the State is dependent on the allocation of the doses from the Centre.
Odisha has a set a target of vaccinating around 3.10 crore adult population in the State.