Bhubaneswar: COVID-19 vaccination drive will commence across Odisha as soon as the doses reach the State, informed Directorate of Medical Education & Training (DMET) Director, Prof CBK Mohanty, today.
A day after the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) formally approved the emergency use of two vaccines in the country, the Odisha government on Monday said that it will start immediate vaccination after receiving the vaccines.
The Director of Medical Education & Training (DMET) said that the state government has prepared a database of 3.27 lakh health workers to be vaccinated in the first phase and accordingly forwarded a demand for adequate vaccine doses to the Centre.
“Serum Institute has over 5 crore vaccine doses, but the State cannot procure it directly. The Central government will decide how many doses Odisha will get. Serum Institute has a production capacity of 5 million doses per month, so we will get vaccines in phased manner, ” Mohanty informed.
In the first phase, the health workers will be vaccinated and a database of Covid Warriors and senior citizens will be prepared in the next phase.
