BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik got the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine administered as the vaccination drive for senior citizens and people aged 45 plus with comorbidities commenced across the state from Monday.
The Chief Minister got the Covaxin shot at the Odisha Assembly dispensary and appealed to all eligible beneficiaries to get the jab as vaccines rolled out in the state are safe and have no side effects.
Patnaik also expressed his gratitude to doctors, scientists and healthcare professionals for their race against time to deliver the vaccines to people.
He took to social media and stated: “Happy to share that I took my first dose of #COVID19 vaccine today. Grateful to our scientists, health workers for their race against time to deliver the vaccines to people. Appeal to all eligible people to come forward and get vaccinated for a #CovidFreeOdisha.”
The vaccination drive is being conducted at 153 centres, including 21 private hospitals in the state on Monday. The government health facilities included Medical College and Hospitals, District Headquarters Hospitals, Sub Divisional Hospitals and some important Community Health Centres.
Meanwhile, the state government has directed all districts to go for offline registration of senior citizens and people with comorbidities following technical glitches in the website and CoWIN app during online registration.
Additional Chief Secretary of Health and Family Welfare department PK Mohapatra asked all Collectors, Municipal Commissioners and CDMOs to ensure smooth inoculation drive after beneficiaries alleged link failure of the government website/app and other technical issues during online registration at various
vaccination centres.
"Officials have been advised to register the age appropriate group of citizens on-site in off-line mode to prevent inconvenience to elderly persons in queue if the team faces any issues with CoWIN portal. The engaged staff will have to upload data once the CoWIN portal functions normally," he said.
Registration and booking for appointment for COVID-19 vaccination are now being done through CoWIN portal: http://cowin.gov.in. There is no CoWIN app for beneficiary registration. The app on Play Store is for administrators only, clarified the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.