Bhubaneswar: A registered health worker can get the Covid-19 vaccine shot anywhere in Odisha, the Health Department said today.
"If a health worker is transferred outside the district where he/she had registered herself/himself to get the vaccine shot, they can also avail the benefit at their present workplace. We have included them in the list of beneficiaries. We had also vaccinated a few health workers yesterday in this manner," Health director Bijay Panigrahy said.
He further informed that the government has aimed at vaccinating 8,744 health workers at 92 sessions today. The process has already begun in all districts, he added.
Panigrahy said the phase-I vaccination drive is likely to be completed by end of this month,
Odisha had earlier received 21 lakh syringes for the vaccination drive while another batch of 22 lakh syringes reached yesterday, he added.
While rejecting rumours of serious side effect of the vaccine on beneficiaries, the director, Health said that minor symptoms were found in only a few of the beneficiaries following vaccination.
"We found side effects of the vaccine in three beneficiaries including one from Bargarh and two from Sundergarh district yesterday. They developed some mild symptoms which subsided after a few hours. They are doing fine now. No serious side effect has yet been reported from anywhere in the State," Panigrahy said.
The immunisation drive witnessed a dip in the State on Tuesday with 88% health workers having been administered the vaccine against 102% of them on Monday. Panigrahy informed that vaccination drive was conducted at 182 sites against the scheduled 192 in 26 districts and Bhubaneswar city. The target was to inoculate 16,261 HCWs but only around 14,292 turned up.
As many as 13 district had achieved over 100% inoculation yesterday with Bhadrak registering a maximum 148% followed by Balasore (133%), Jajpur (127%), Kandhamal (125%) and Mayurbhanj (124%) districts.
Similarly, Rayagada district had witnessed low turnout with only 38%. The immunisation exercise in Dhenkanal, Nuapada, Deogarh, Koraput, Khurdha and Sundergarh and Cuttack district had also failed to achieve 100% target on Tuesday.