Odisha Health and Family Welfare Director Dr Bijay Panigrahi said on Friday said that only booster doses can shield people from Covid’s new variant.
He informed that vaccination has stopped in the State since November 28 and said the Centre will be requested to supply doses of vaccines.
Panigrahi said so far 8,14,00,000 doses have been administered in Odisha which is the highest at the national level. Those who have received precaution doses are safe.
"Today there is a meeting on Covid situation in the State. After the decision, the Centre will be requested for the vaccine so that the free vaccination can be resumed," said Panigrahi.
“We don’t have supply of vaccine from the government of India. The doses we had with us were exhausted on November 28. But about 12 private hospitals are administering the doses. We have good herd immunity in Odisha. Moreover, many people of our state have received precautionary doses. So I think there shouldn’t be much problem,” informed Dr Panigrahi.
“In the case of the new variant, we had a single positive case three months ago. The patient is not in Odisha now. She has already returned to where she came from. Her health condition is good now. There is no denying that natural immunity and vaccine-induced immunity are working well. As a result, we are reporting from zero to three/four cases daily,” Dr Panigrahi added.
Notably, the patient who tested positive for the new variant was a woman from Khordha district. The sample was collected on September 30 and subsequently, genome sequencing was conducted.