By Express News Service
BHUBANESWAR: Apprehensive of Covid vaccine scarcity, Odisha authorities on Tuesday directed districts and municipal firms to prioritise second dose vaccination throughout the State and go gradual on first dose.
While 28.31 lakh beneficiaries are due for Covishield second dose this month, the State expects to get solely about 25.31 lakh doses of vaccine.
The State authorities has been vaccinating over three lakh residents day by day topic to availability of vaccines. As many as 4.02 lakh doses, the best to date in a day, have been efficiently administered on Monday.
Keeping in thoughts the limitation on Covishield vaccine provide this month, Additional Chief Secretary of Health PK Mohapatra mentioned, the districts have been requested to prioritise second dose due for vaccination over the primary dose beneficiary protection.
Under the revised Covid-19 vaccination schedule, Covishield second dose vaccination is due within the 12 to 16-week window.
Mohapatra mentioned, the State has a inventory of three.45 lakh doses of Covishield which might be consumed inside two days. Since the following tranche of Covishield is scheduled for July 15, the State may have stock-out of vaccines from July 9 to fifteen, he mentioned.
Meanwhile, the State authorities has urged the Centre to produce the required doses of vaccines throughout the subsequent two days to forestall a stock-out scenario.
“The Covishield allocation for July is 25.31 lakh doses which is around three lakh less than the number of beneficiaries due for second dose in July. We have requested the Ministry of Health to allocate an additional 15 lakh doses of Covishield for our State to manage vaccination sessions smoothly,” Mohapatra added.
As many as 3,43,862 doses of vaccines administered on Tuesday taking the whole variety of doses to 1.29 crore and amongst them 25 lakh are absolutely vaccinated.
