Bhubaneswar: Odisha government has expressed with full optimism that it is ready at all fronts to vaccinate people above 18 years of age against Covid-19 from May 1.
Under the Phase 3 of COVID vaccination strategy, the Centre has made a provision that vaccine manufacturers would have to supply 50% of their monthly Central Drugs Laboratory released doses to Govt of India and ensure that the remaining 50% supplies go to State Govts and open markets.
State Health Director Bijay Panigrahi on Tuesday informed that even though Odisha government is yet to confirm whether it will procure Corona jabs for the third phase of vaccination, all infrastructure arrangements are in place to take up the massive scale of inoculation.
More session sites and vaccination centres will be set up in the State for the liberalised and accelerated Phase 3 strategy of COVID-19 vaccination, Panigrahi said while addressing newsmen today.
As per the protocols released by the government, eligible beneficiaries are required to get themselves registered through Co-Win app or go for on-spot listing for vaccination.
It may be noted that the Union government, from its share, will allocate vaccines to States/UTs based on three criteria
- Extent of infection (number of active COVID cases)
- Performance (speed of administration).
- Wastage of vaccine will also be considered in this criteria and will affect criteria negatively.
On the other hand, the present Covid vaccination drive will continue as usual at government and private centres. On Tuesday, 1 lakh more Covishield vaccines will arrive in the State. At present vaccination is underway at 900 centres across Odisha, informed Panigrahi.
Meanwhile, Ajay Parida, the director of Institute of Life Sciences, State’s premier biotech research organization, has attributed the massive virus case surge to people incoming from border states especially Chhattisgarh.
He also blamed people for not religiously following the COVID appropriate behavior.
Parida explained that the virus mutations detected in Punjab and Maharashtra have no effect in Odisha. The strains available in the State can only be ascertained after large number of genome sequencing.