CUTTACK: Even as the State government has prioritised Covid-19 vaccine for frontline healthcare workers (FHWs), the Swami Vivekanand National Institute of Rehabilitation Training and Research (SVNIRTAR) at Olatpur here has been curiously left out from its vaccination programme.
Though the authorities of the national institute had submitted a list of around 1,000 beneficiaries including doctors, staff and students to the district administration for vaccination, they are yet to be considered a s HFWs and vaccinated. While around 700 students from in and outside states are pursuing different courses at SVNIRTAR under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, hundreds of patients visit the institute daily for treatment.
While 30 persons including doctors, staff and students of SVNIRTAR were infected by coronavirus last year, a health worker had also succumbed to the infection. Despite that, exclusion of the national institute from the vaccination programme has created widespread discontentment among the doctors, health workers and students of the institute.
In a letter to Kantapada BDO, authorities of the institute had requested him for administering Covid vaccine to its employees. SVNIRTAR is catering to the need of Divyangs in the field of locomotors disability and during the pandemic, uninterrupted services were provided to the patients.
“It is a matter of great agony and surprise that the Covid warriors and frontline workers of our institute are being deprived of the massive immunization programme of administering Covid vaccine,” the letter stated while requesting the local administration to initiate necessary step to provide the vaccine to its employees at the earliest. The authorities have sought a requirement of about 400 vials of Covid vaccine for the institute.
19 fresh cases in Cuttack
Cuttack: The district on Saturday registered 19 fresh Covid cases including 15 from Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) area. While eight cases have been reported from home quarantine in the city, seven are local contact cases. Four cases have been detected from rural areas of the district. As on Saturday, the total number of positive cases in CMC area stands at 16,620 with 166 active cases.