The Odisha government has decided to scale up the COVID-19 vaccination centres to 1,000 for the convenience of people above the sixty years of age.
“We are in receipt of grievance petitions from senior citizens mostly from rural areas on the long distance they have to cover to get vaccinated. The sultry weather and rising mercury has definitely made things difficult for them. Therefore, the government after careful consideration has decided to increase the vaccination centres to 1,000 from 700. The additional vaccination centres will become operational in a day or two”, said Director of Health and Family Welfare Bijay Panigrahi on Monday.
Meanwhile the Odisha government has set the target of one lakh vaccination doses every day.
A total of 3,48,309 people aged 60 years and above have been inoculated till date while 18,046 people of over 45 years of age with comorbidities have so far received the vaccine jabs.
The senior citizens and people in the 45-59 years age-group with comorbidities constitute around 11% or around 46 lakh of State’s total population, he said adding that 91% of healthcare workers and 80% of frontline warriors have also been vaccinated till date.
The inoculation which was not taking place on Saturday will now be carried out on that day, he added.
During the course of the third phase of COVID-19 vaccination that commenced on 1 March, no Adverse events following immunization (AEFI) has been reported among the 3.66 lakh vaccinated beneficiaries, he informed.
Meanwhile, the district administration of Ganjam launched the mass screening of the train passengers at the railway station in Berhampur.
“The health screening is done for the passengers coming from other states at the railway station,” said Ganjam collector Vijay Amrut Kulange.