The civic administration in Odisha’s Sundargarh district has asked shopkeepers to get vaccinated, otherwise they would lose the right to open their establishments.
The Sundargarh Municipality issued a direction asking business operators to vaccinate themselves under the COVID-19 protocol.
In his order, the Sundargarh District Collector said business shops may not be allowed to open without vaccination.
The strict instruction was issued even though the State government has relaxed lockdown norms in Sundargarh following drop in daily COVID-19 cases from the district.
In Sundargarh, all shops are allowed to remain open from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m.
At present, Sundargarh, which previously had 8,000 active cases, currently has 1,489 active cases. Of the total active cases, over 300 have been detected in the Sundargarh Municipal area.
In Sundargarh district, 4,99,907 persons have been vaccinated. While 4,42,858 persons have received first dose, only 57,049 have been fully vaccinated.
As far as the State is concerned, 74,59,512 persons have received the first shot while the second dose has been administered to only 17,67,064 persons.
According to the Health and Family Welfare Department, the State, which had very low vaccine stocks, currently has over 10 lakh doses. People were vaccinated at 1,004 vaccination sites across the State on Wednesday, and the number of sites was increased to 1,151 on Thursday.
While Covaxin is being administered only in the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation area, Covishield has been supplied to the rest of State. Recently, Covishield was made available for students who intend to travel abroad for studies.
Following instructions from Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Odisha government has directed field functionaries to treat ration cards with photos issued under National Food Security Act as a valid photo identity proof for verification of beneficiaries under the vaccination programme.