BHUBANESWAR: After a slump in turnout of healthcare workers (HCWs) for Covid-19 vaccination for two consecutive days, Odisha achieved a record 121 per cent (pc) of the Day 5 target on Thursday. The achievement on Tuesday and Wednesday was 88 pc and 89 pc respectively.
The State government had set the target for inoculating 37,076 HCWs at 436 session sites in 30 districts and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) area. However, 44,880 beneficiaries turned up to get the jab following sustained counselling by health officials.
Odisha became the second State in the country after Telangana in vaccinating a record number of health workers on a day. With this, the total number of beneficiaries receiving the Covid-19 vaccines in the State soared to 1,13,624.
The coverage in 20 districts was more than 100 pc with three districts inoculating more than double the number of beneficiaries targeted for the day. The turnout was the highest in Ganjam district at 281 pc.
The other better-performing districts in terms of vaccine coverage were Angul at 236 pc, Bhadrak at 218 pc, Puri at 167 pc, Balasore at 165 pc, Sundargarh at 152 pc and Kendrapara and Kandhamal at 135 pc each.
Barring Deogarh, Nuapada, Keonjhar and Rayagada, where only 44 pc, 81 pc and 88 pc people respectively came forward to take the jab, all other districts put up a stellar performance. The coverage in Bhubaneswar was 186 pc.
Additional Chief Secretary of Health department PK Mohapatra said though vaccine hesitancy is not new, health officials have been asked to engage with beneficiaries to clear doubts and confusions, if any. “We hope more health workers will come forward in the coming days,” he added.
Five adverse event following immunisation (AEFI) cases - two each from Bargarh and Khurda and one from Jagatsinghpur - were reported on Thursday. The State government has classified two of them as serious. One staff nurse (27) from Bargarh suffered from fever and another ASHA (45) from Jagatsinghpur complained of headache and fainted a couple of hours after vaccination. Both have been hospitalised and their condition is stated to be normal.The State Government is expecting 1.49 lakh doses of Covaxin vaccine in a week.