The COVID-19 vaccination drive came to grinding halt in 24 out of 30 districts of Odisha after vaccine stocks depleted on July 12.
Except the six districts of Cuttack, Sundargarh, Keonjhar, Sambalpur, Mayurbhanj and Nabarangpur, not even a single vaccination centre was operational in the rest of the districts.
Only 220 vaccination sites were operational on July 12. The State had in the past inoculated more than 4 lakh people in a single day by setting up 1,730 vaccination centres.
As vaccine stocks were not replenished against utilisation, the number of doses came down fast. On July 12, there were only 40,460 Covishield doses and 3,53,630 Covaxin doses available in the State. Covaxin is administered only in Bhubaneswar and Berhampur Municipal Corporation areas.
The Odisha government had earlier raised an alarm over vaccine shortage, saying the Covishield allocation for July was 25.31 lakh doses against requirement of 28.31 lakh doses for second dose in July. The next consignment of Covishield is to be made available to the State on July 15.
The Odisha government had requested additional allocation of 15 lakh doses of Covishield to manage vaccination sessions smoothly.
As of now, a total 1.33 crore people, including 1.05 crore first doses and 27.89 lakh second doses, have been vaccinated in Odisha.
Wherever vaccines were available, people were seen queuing up before centres early from the morning, flouting physical distance norms. Police personnel were roped in to maintain order outside vaccination centres.
Meanwhile, Odisha’s daily COVD-19 count has come down below 2,000-mark for the first time in the past 87 days with 1,993 cases being reported on Monday. On April 17, the daily count was registered at 1,784 cases. Cumulatively, total confirmed cases are now 9,41,745. With 63 new deaths, the toll now stands at 4,662.
For the second consecutive day, the test positivity rate (TPR) has come down below 3%. The TPR on July 12 was reported to be 2.53% against 2.91% on July 11.
