BHUBANESWAR : With Odisha staring at a situation where Covid-19 vaccinations may come to a halt from Saturday onwards if the Centre did not supply adequate doses immediately, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday called upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure at least 10 days’ stock for the State. Raising the issue of acute vaccine shortage during the PM’s meeting with all chief ministers, Naveen said supply issues are set to cripple the inoculation drive in the State.
“Odisha has been doing well in the vaccination programme, having one of the lowest wastage in the country with efficient system of administering the vaccine to eligible persons. But, the State has not been able to ramp up the vaccination due to supply issues ,” the Chief Minister said. He said that Odisha is at present vaccinating 2.5 lakh persons per day and has the capability to increase it further.
He also demanded that at least Rs 300 crore be released to Odisha for Covid management in 2021-22 to tackle the second wave. During 2020-21, Odisha had requested for Rs 400 crore under Emergency Covid Response Plan (ECRP), but received only Rs 146 crore.
He, however, thanked the Centre for allowing states to spend up to 50 percent of the annual allocation under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) for Covid-related activities during 2020-21 and requested that the same should be continued in 2021-22 as well. The Chief Minister said Odisha has reactivated its system to tackle the new rise in Covid-19 cases especially in districts bordering some states with high incidence of the virus.
“The entire country has to put up a united front against this pandemic and we will continue to provide all support in this fight,” he added. Earlier, State Health and Family Welfare Minister Naba Kishore Das told mediapersons that the government had written to the Centre on Wednesday for the supply of 25 lakh doses of vaccines. “Odisha requires 2.5 lakh doses of vaccines every day. If the vaccines do not reach the State by this evening, all session sites will be closed from Saturday,” he alerted.