About 22 lakh people waiting for 2nd COVID-19 vaccine dose in Odisha
Bhubaneswar, May 12 (PTI) The Odisha government on Wednesday informed the centre that about 22 lakh people in the state are waiting for the second shot and therefore the state requires at least 25 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccines. This was stated by Odisha’s Health and Family Welfare Minister N K Das, who joined a virtual meeting of Union Health & Family Welfare minister Harsh Vardhan with state health ministers.
Das said that the state has been facing an acute shortage of vaccines and people are waiting to get their crucial second dose. He said the state immediately require at least 25 lakh of Covishield vaccines to meet the requirement. The minister also requested the Centre to ensure supply of oxygen cylinders.
While daily consumption of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) in Odisha is 52.9 metric tonne (MT), production capacity in the state is 155.51 MT (through cylinders). However, the surplus LMO cant be utilised due to shortage of cylinders. Hence the state urgently needs 15,000 B-type oxygen cylinders and 15,000 D-type oxygen cylinders, Das said.
This apart, the health minister also said that the state precently has 89,683 active cases. As patients in the second wave require oxygen and intenstive care treatment, Odisha needs 500 ventilators. Das said keeping in view the surge of new positive cases, Odisha also needs more antigen kits in order to ramp up COVID-19 tests for early detection of the virus.
For the safety of health workers and doctors, the state needs 5 lakh PPE kits, 10 lakh gloves and 10 lakh N-95 masks, Das said demanding setting up a a 247 helpline in the national task force for availing timely assistance and information on medicines used for critical patients.
Das also further informed the union minister that Odishas case fatality ratio (CFR) stands at 0.39 per cent due to effective COVID management.
The national CFR is 1.08%. Besides, the recovery rate in Odisha is more than 80 per cent , he said. Meanwhikle, the state government informed all the district authorities that the due date for second dose of Covishield vaccine has been revised to 42 days (six weeks) after the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Therefore, beneficiaries visiting vaccination centre for second dose of Covishield between four and six weeks cannot be vaccinated and the Co-WIN portal will not allow the same, Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare (H &FW) P K Mohapatra said in a letter to district authorities.
“The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has made modification in Co-WIN portal for second dose of Covishield with effect from today. The due date for the second dose has been revised to 42 days (6 weeks) after first dose, which was 28 days (4 weeks) earlier.
“You are requested to share the same with all officials, supervisor, vaccinators and verifiers,” the H & FW department said in the letter.
However, there has been no such modification for Covaxin vaccines, sources said.