Bhubaneswar: In another major development regarding the coronavirus vaccination drive in Odisha, the Directorate of Medical Education And Training has informed that the vaccination is not mandatory, rather getting vaccinated will be voluntary in the state.
The vaccine will be administered to health workers who will be willing to receive the shot. This was announced by DMET Director Dr CBK Mohanty today.
“We all are prepared to execute the vaccination programme as per guidelines framed by the Centre. The country has approved two vaccines that will be administered in two doses. The second dose of the vaccine will be administered 28 days after the first dose,” Dr Mohanty informed.
Odisha Health Minister Naba Kishore Das on Monday said the much-awaited Covid vaccine is likely to reach the state by January 30.
The Minister said that as per the protocols, the Covid warriors including frontline health workers will get the first dose of the vaccine in the first phase in the state.
Notably, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has granted emergency use approval to Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech for their respective vaccines. The dry run for the administration of the Covid vaccine was held successfully in all the 30 districts of the state on Saturday.
As Odisha Government geared up to finalise the number of people to be vaccinated in the first phase, Cuttack topped the list of districts to get larger allocation of Covid-19 vaccine. So far 3,28,634 healthcare workers (HCWs), including doctors, nurses and paramedical staff have been enrolled in the Co-WIN portal for vaccination. The beneficiaries list also included 1.4 lakh ICDS functionaries like Anganwadi workers.
The highest 28,504 beneficiaries have enrolled in Cuttack district, followed by 27,682 in Khurda, 25,138 in Ganjam, 18,424 in Mayurbhanj, 16,520 in Sundargarh, 13,661 in Balasore, 12,508 in Keonjhar, 12,424 in Balangir, 12,264 in Koraput and 12,032 in Sambalpur.
