Odisha: Covishield shortage makes vaccination for 18+ uncertain in districts

BHUBANESWAR: Vaccination of people in the 18 to 44 age group in places other than Bhubaneswar continues to be uncertain as there is still no clarity on the supply of Covishield. Director, family welfare, Bijay Kumar Panigrahi said the Serum Institute of India has indicated that some vaccine may come in the third week. However, the state would get a consignment of only around 2.20 lakh doses of Covishield with no clarity on subsequent supply.
So even if the vaccination starts with these doses, the inoculation exercise will not be state-wide. If the supply remains low, priority will be given to the four cities of Cuttack, Rourkela, Berhampur and Sambalpur, additional chief secretary (health) Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra said. As reported earlier, Odisha has been using Covaxin in Bhubaneswar only and using Covishield in rest of the state. Since its requirement for Covaxin is less, there is no such problem for the Bharat Biotech product. However, there is serious short supply of Covishield.
Mohapatra said there is no plan to extend Covaxin to other parts of the state as its maker Bharat Biotech too has supply constraints and its extension to other parts would mean its immediate shortage in the state. Moreover, since Covishield is already used in other parts, mixing it with Covaxin will create confusion, he said.
For vaccination of people above 45 years, for which the Centre has been supplying vaccine, the state got another two lakh doses of Covishield and 90,000 doses of Covaxin on Friday. The state had last got one lakh doses of Covishield on Tuesday. The Covishield supply vis-a-vis the requirement is very less since second dose date is due in state for more than 20.58 lakh people in the state. The state may get another 5,78,480 doses of Central-sponsored Covishield by May 15.
With the supply remaining erratic and quantity very less, the state has been facing serious logistical issues in their distribution. Since vaccine is coming in small quantities every week, the district administrations have to frequently send vaccine vans to the state capital. Imagine a vaccine van coming from Malkangiri to Bhubaneswar covering a distance of 600 km and returning with only 1,000 doses. Had sufficient vaccine been available, the frequency of vaccine vans coming to the state capital would become far less, said a government officer.