Covid Vaccination To Begin At 5 Centres In Bhubaneswar On Jan 16

Bhubaneswar: With the first consignment containing vials of Covishield vaccine from Pune all set to reach Odisha today, preparations for the first phase Covid-19 vaccination drive scheduled to commence from January 16 reached final stages in the State capital.

Speaking to media, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Prem Chandra Chaudhary said, "We have prepared a list of 21,000 doctors, health workers and medical staff. We have appealed the doctors and other health workers to register themselves as the registration will remain open till this evening. BMC is well-prepared for the first phase vaccination."

"Initially, the immunisation will be launched at five centres- Capital Hospital, Unit-IV Community Health Centre, BMC hospital in Old Town, SUM and KIMS Hospitals in Bhubaneswar. Moreover, we have made arrangements at 27 government hospitals including Capital Hospital and 18 private hospitals, which will be later used as vaccination centres," Chaudhary added.

Reacting on the development, Directorate of Medical Education And Training (DMET) director CBK Mohanty said the long wait for the vaccination has come to an end.

"A list of 3.28 lakh health workers has been prepared for the immunisation. Serum Institute has sufficient vaccines for first-phase vaccination," said Mohanty.

Notably, the first consignment containing vials of Covishield vaccine dispatched from Serum Institute of India in Pune will reach Odisha on Tuesday.

According to the Health and Family Welfare department, the vaccine will be flown to Odisha in special SpiceJet flight and land at Biju Patnaik International Airport at around 4.20 pm today.

The vaccines are being flown from Pune in eight commercial flights, including two cargo flights. The first cargo flight will cover Hyderabad, Vijayawada, and Bhubaneswar and the second cargo flight will go to Kolkata and Guwahati.

(Edited By Suryakant Jena)