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Bhubaneswar: Odisha will receive over 4 lakh doses of the much-awaited COVID-19 vaccine for the roll-out of the mass immunization drive against coronavirus in the first phase on January 16.
Additional Chief Secretary (Health) PK Mohapatra on Tuesday said Odisha will receive around 4.08 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine prepared by the Serum Institute. Apart from this, the State has also received a letter from the Centre regarding despatch of another 20,000 doses of Covaxin, he said.
“Everybody across the State was desperately waiting for this moment. We are happy that the COVID-19 vaccine consignment will reach the State in the afternoon today,” said Mohapatra.
According to Mohapatra, all the vaccines will be kept as per protocols at the State Vaccine Store in Bhubaneswar after the consignment reaches the State today.
Each district has been asked to send teams and vaccines will be allocated and later stored at district vaccine stores and subsequently taken in cold chains to 160 session sites for vaccination drive on January 16, he said.
In the first phase, around 3.28 lakh health workers including Anganwadi workers will be administered the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
“We have decided to administer COVID-19 vaccine as per age-groups of the healthcare workers. According to the decision, the elderly health workers will be vaccinated first. Apart from this, we have decided to give priority to the districts which have high number of COVID-19 cases,” Mohapatra added.
Apart from health care workers, the State government has also decided to vaccinate all the police personnel, officials engaged in disaster management including Collectors and BDOs, Municipal workers, Revenue department officials and others.
A database of all such personnel will be prepared and uploaded by January 25, Mohapatra added.
(Edited By Suryakant Jena)
