The State Director of Health Services, Bijay Mohapatra on Monday informed that out of the 23 patients who tested positive for Omicron on Sunday, 19 have hardly any symptoms. Of the rest, a few have mild symptoms and fewer have symptoms.
“Of the 23 Omicron patients, 11 have definite travel history and the rest 12 don’t have any travel history. Some are contracting the virus locally. In Keonjhar district, seven patients have contracted the virus from congregation. There are Covid-19 and Omicron virus around us. If we flout Covid norms and allow congregation, the number of cases will go up,” cautioned Mohapatra.
Amid the growing concern over Omicron, the long-awaited Covid-19 vaccination for children aged between 15 and 18 years was kicked off by the Bhubaneswar Municipality Corporation (BMC) on Monday. The vaccination is being conducted at 35 centres. With this, the long and desperate wait of parents to get their children inoculated has now come to an end. Parents and guardians were seen taking their sons and daughters to the designated vaccination centres in the Capital city today.
Sources said the vaccinations are facilitated through both online and offline bookings. The BMC authorities have set a target to administer vaccine to 70,000 children of the prescribed age group.
BMC additional commissioner Laxmikanta Sethi said the civic authorities have plans to inoculate 70,000 beneficiaries aged between 15 and 18 years. “If required, new vaccination centres will be set up. All the centres have been asked to keep the vaccinated children under observation. Since the beneficiaries have to go to schools, play and attend tuitions, observation after vaccination has been made mandatory,” said Sethi.
Notably, Odisha on Monday registered 424 fresh Covid-19 cases. With this, the infection tally has increased to 10, 55, 980. Khurda district reported a maximum of 151 cases.
Of the fresh 424 Covid-19 cases, three are students-two boys and one girl-from the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Rourkela in Sundargarh district. The NIT authorities said that the infected students have been kept in isolation and their condition is stable.