BHUBANESWAR: Odisha may face shortage of COVID-19 vaccine for at least four days from March 31 if the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry does not supply adequate vaccine doses in time.
Even as the State received 3.7 lakh doses on Tuesday and 9.8 lakh doses more are expected on April 2, the Health officials feared shortage of vaccines from March 31 to April 3 as the available stock will last till March 30.
As the Centre has approved vaccination of all citizens above 45 years across the country from April 1, the state government has sought adequate supply of COVID-19 vaccine to the State at the earliest.
Additional Chief Secretary (Health) PK Mohapatra said that Odisha is inoculating more than one lakh beneficiaries everyday. "Though the plan is to step up it to two lakh vaccinations per day, we are unable to do so due to less vaccine supply," he said.
Taking into account the available stock of Covishield vaccine (8.2 lakh doses), the state can conduct sessions smoothly up to March 30. "Even if we get the subsequent allocation of 9.8 lakh doses of Covishield on April 2, we will still have no vaccines from March 31 to April 3. The Union Health Ministry has been urged to supply adequate doses of Covishield vaccine in time so as to continue uninterrupted vaccination drive in the state," he added.
So far, 19,60,719 doses of vaccines have been administered the State. While 3,10,083 healthcare workers have received first dose and 2,50,705 second dose, 1,81,415 frontline workers have got first dose and 1,27,732 second dose.
Similarly, 10,30,815 senior citizens and 59,969 people, aged 45 plus with comorbidities have taken first dose. Meanwhile, the vaccine wastage rate in the State now stands at 0.24 per cent, which is one of the lowest in the country and much below the admissible norm of 10 per cent wastage.
The districts with more than two per cent wastage are Sundergarh (9.5 per cent), Kandhamal (6.4 per cent), Nayagarh (4.6 per cent), Gajapati (2.5 per cent) and Ganjam (2.1 per cent). The wastage in Sundargarh is more than that of the national average of 6.5 per cent.
The Health department has asked the districts with high wastage rate to ensure optimum use of vaccine and cut down the wastage below one per cent.