Bhubaneswar: The State government started another massive Covid-19 inoculation drive as Odisha’s police personnel and all frontline corona warriors of various government departments received the vaccine shot from today.
DGP Abhay was the first person to be inoculated on the first day of phase II Covid-19 vaccination programme.
Apart from Abhay, SPs and Collectors of all the districts will also be administered the Covid-19 vaccine.
While all departments are geared up for the vaccination process, the government has asked senior officials including DGP, Collectors, SPs and others to take the vaccine and share a photo of the same on social media.
The frontline workers included police, security and armed forces personnel, sanitation workers and revenue staff and PRI members engaged in Covid containment measures. So far, 1.92 lakh beneficiaries have been enrolled.
As many as 8,937 police personnel in Bhubaneswar and 6,867 in Cuttack will receive the jab.
Additional Chief Secretary PK Mohapatra said once the senior officers are administered the vaccine, it will build confidence amongst frontline workers that the vaccine is safe and has no side effects. Mohapatra, who was administered vaccine on Saturday, appealed to all healthcare and frontline workers to come forward to take both the doses as the vaccines are completely safe. The Health department also shared his photo on its Twitter account.
Meanwhile, all arrangements have been made to vaccinate the frontline workers at separate sites other than the health facilities where healthcare workers are being vaccinated. The frontline workers will be inoculated at their offices designated by their respective district administration. Separate vaccinators have been deployed for them.
