As Covid rises, Odisha requests Centre for 50,000 vaccine doses

BHUBANESWAR: With the spike in Covid cases, the state government has moved the Centre for 50,000 doses of Corbevax vaccine. The Centre had sent the vaccines last to the state on January 17. On Tuesday, the state recorded 141 fresh Covid cases taking the total number of active cases in Odisha to 731.
"With the rise in Covid cases in the state in the last one week there has been a demand for precautionary dose of the vaccine at government vaccination centers," said Bijay Panigrahy, director (family welfare). Vaccine doses are not even available in private hospitals, he added.
Doctors have advised people with comorbidities to take booster dose and follow Covid guidelines while going out.
Official sources said Odisha has administered 8.15 crore (8,15,45,501) doses of the vaccine covering 97% of the target population with at least one dose, 91% with two doses and 41% people with a third dose. Biological Es Corbvax has been administered as a precautionary dose to those above 18 years of age and who have already taken both doses of either Covishield or Covaxin.
Director (public health) Niranjan Mishra said the Covid infections are being reported from 16 districts. The positivity rate in the country is 6.9 per cent whereas it is 2.8 per cent in Odisha. "But there is no scope for laxity and people should also take precautions like wearing masks, handwashing and taking the precautionary dose of vaccine," he said. He also requested people to get tested if they have flu-like symptoms. One Covid death was reported in the state on Sunday this year.
Mock drills were conducted across all health facilities, including dedicated Covid centres to evaluate their level of preparedness in terms of equipment, procedure and manpower on Monday and Tuesday, official sources said.
Critical medical infrastructure and resources, including oxygen beds, isolation beds, ventilators, PSA plants, LMO, oxygen concentrators, oxygen cylinders as well as medicines and PPE kits were assessed and medical staff were oriented on management of Covid-19 during the drills.
The nationwide mock drill online training with state and district surveillance units was conducted on April 4, 5 and 6. These trainings focused on the role to be played by the state and district surveillance units, data fields to be updated, types of facilities to be covered and details of helpline states, union territories facing any difficulty on feeding data on Covid-19 India portal.