Covid-19 Vaccine: ‘160 Immunization Sites Identified Across Odisha’

Bhubaneswar: Ahead of the nation-wide rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, the Odisha government on Sunday said that it has finalised around 160 sites for the first phase of vaccination drive across the State.

Director of Health and Family Department, BijayPanigrahi informed that the vaccination centres include district headquarters hospitals, sub-divisional hospitals, CHC, PHCs, medical colleges and private hospitals.

“Though we are yet to receive any official communication regarding the dates, we have already made necessary arrangements for the COVID-19 vaccination drive,” said Panigrahi.

According to the Health Director, all necessary infrastructure has been made ready and work to identify cold storage facilities is underway.

“All the issues that were faced during the dry run of the vaccination held twice in the State have been resolved, so we hope that there will be no problems in carrying out of the actual vaccination drive in the State,” Panigrahi added.

#Covid19 vaccination will be conducted at 160 different centres across #Odisha including govt, private hospitals, CHCs & PHCs. Vaccine will be administered to 100 health workers at each site, informs State Health Director Bijay Panigrahi pic.twitter.com/jK7dMlmUcN

— OTV (@otvnews) January 10, 2021

Official sources said that soon a detailed guideline for the vaccine rollout will be issued by the Centre.

Earlier on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting to review the status of Covid-19 in the country along with the preparedness of the states and UTs for the immunization drive.

The Union Health Ministry said that the much-awaited coronavirus vaccination drive will kick off on January 16.

The roll-out of Covid-19 vaccine will give priority to the healthcare and frontline workers who are estimated to be around 3 crore. After that those above 50 years of age and the under-50 population groups with comorbidities numbering who account for around 27 crore of the country's population will be subjected to vaccination.