Bhubaneswar (SunstarTV Bureau): With no commitment from the manufacturers on the likely volume and date of supply of vaccines to the state, the inoculation plan for people in the the age group of 18 to 44 from May 1 remains uncertain.
Additional chief secretary (health) Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra said the government is in touch with the vaccine makers.
“I have personally spoken with senior functionaries of both Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute on Monday. They are saying they will consider thesupply depending on availability,” he said.
The state government has ordered 3.87 crore doses of the vaccine, including 3.77 lakh Covishield manufactured by the Serum Institute and 10.34 lakh Covaxin by Bharat Biotech. While Covishield will be used in all other parts of the state, Covaxin will be used in Bhubaneswar.
The government authorities are hoping for the supply of Covaxin in a staggered manner of two lakh doses within the next few days, while Covishield is unlikely to arive before May 15. Sources said the bulk of the vaccines has been booked by the Centre.
“Once Covaxin is available, we will complete the vaccination of all people within the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation area in a mission mode within a month to 45 days,” Mohapatra said. He added that the planning for the vaccination sites across the state would depend on the availability of the vaccine. If available, the state can vaccinate more than three lakh people in a day, which can be scaled up further.
With effect from last week, the state government has stopped Covid vaccination on Saturdays and Sundays in view of the weekend shutdown till further orders. The government was planning to revise its order to ensure the launch of vaccination for the new age group from May 1, which is a Saturday.
However, since the vaccine is unlikely to be available by then, the state may continue its no-vaccination plan on weekends for the time being, the government sources said.
The registration for vaccination for the 18+ age group, however, will start in the CoWIN portal on Wednesday as per schedule. Online online registration is allowed for the vaccination of 18 to 44 age group as per the Centre’s guidelines to avoid crowd at the vaccination sites.
(Sources: TOI)
