BHUBANESWAR: Amid the short supply of vaccine from the Centre, free Covid-19 vaccination for 18 years plus group commenced in Odisha on Saturday with 96 beneficiaries getting jabs at Bhubaneswar.
Health department sources said all 96 beneficiaries were administered the first dose of Covaxin as part of a trial run on the first day of the Phase III vaccination strategy. The drive will continue from Monday onwards.
The State government had received 1.5 lakh doses of Covaxin from Bharat Biotech on Friday evening as the first consignment of the State's own procurement for vaccination of 18-44 years age group.
Covaxin will be used in Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) limits for which slots have been opened on CoWIN portal. Odisha has sought 40 lakh doses of Covishield from Serum Institute in May and has not received the scheduled date of dispatch.
Additional Chief Secretary of Health, PK Mohapatra said the software has been tested during the symbolic trial run and the vaccination slot for eligible beneficiaries in 30 districts will be opened after initial doses of Covishield arrive.
The state government has placed orders for 3.77 crore doses of Covishield and 10.34 lakh doses of Covaxin for the vaccination of 1.93 crore people, aged 18-44 years.
The vaccination has been suspended in the weekends for sanitisation of vaccine centers. So far 58,57,628 doses of vaccines have been administered and the state has 46,220 doses of Covishield and 3,21,630 doses of Covaxin in stock from the Central quota. Besides, it has 1,49,900 doses of Covaxin in stock from its own procurement.
The BMC, which announced the opening of slots in the city made it clear that no beneficiary will be entertained at the session site without registration and booking of slot for the inoculation.
BMC Commissioner Prem Chandra Chaudhary said booking of slots online for the registered beneficiaries on the CoWIN portal is highly essential to avoid unnecessary crowds at the vaccination centers.
As per the time schedule announced by the BMC, beneficiaries in the age group of 18-44 years will be administered vaccine between 8 am to 1 pm while the vaccination of the 45+ age group will be conducted between 3 pm and 6 pm.
Beneficiaries can take the vaccine only at the center they had opted for during registration and slot booking, BMC officials said.
As the BMC had kept limited slots open for the 18 to 44 age group, many beneficiaries were deprived of booking slots on the first day.
The civic body, however, assured that more slots at vaccination sites will be opened in the coming days. "There is no scarcity of vaccine in the city and we are trying to open the maximum number of slots in the Government managed session sites," the Municipal Commissioner said.
He, however, urged the city residents to follow Covid appropriate behaviors all the time at vaccination centres and other places to check the spread of the virus.
Odisha on Saturday recorded its biggest single-day spike of 10,413 new Covid-19 cases and 11 deaths. Khurda and Sundargarh districts reported more than 1000 cases each. The active cases stood at 61,452 after 5634 patients recovered.
The daily infection count in Bhubaneswar crossed 1000-mark for the second day in a row as 1,093 more individuals tested positive for the virus in the last 24 hours. Four more deaths were also reported in this period. The new infections have pushed the tally of active cases in the city to 8,168.
Eligible beneficiaries can register themselves on cowin.gov.in and seldregistration.cowin.gov.in for vaccination.