HealthNation

Odisha plans more session sites for COVID-19 vaccination

Bhubaneswar, January 18 dmanewsdesk:  Encouraged by over 85 percent immunisation on the first day of the COVID-19 vaccination programme, Odisha government has formulated a strategy to increase the number of people getting COVID-19 jabs, a senior official said.

As per the strategy all medical colleges, both government and private from Monday, will conduct at least five sessions per day in different locations and in each session site, 200 beneficiaries to be targeted, said Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, P K Mohapatra.

“For each session site, two vaccinators and four vaccination officers shall be deployed. Sessions shall be conducted on working days,” Mohapatra said.

Similarly, district headquarters hospitals and sub- divisional hospitals will conduct onetwo sessions per day based on the beneficiary load of the institution. The target will be 100 per day for each session.

Community Health Centres and Urban CHCs will conduct one session per day and the target for a session is 100. The sessions will be planned on Monday, Thursday and Saturday in such institutions.

The session micro-plan will be prepared based on the vaccine availability and consolidated plan to be submitted to the state by Monday noon, he said, adding that session planning should be done in such a way so that the first phase of vaccination can be completed by January 25. As many as 3.28 lakh front line workers from health and sanitation department will be covered in the first phase.

On the first day of the vaccination programme on Saturday, as many as 13,980 beneficiaries were administered COVID-19 vaccines across the state in 161 session sites. Six districts achieved 100 vaccination on the first day.

Though some side effects were noticed in Dhenkanal, Salipur and Rayagada after some people got the shot of COVID vaccine, it was “due to nervousness”, said Director of Health Department Bijay Panigrahi adding, that no major side effects have been reported later.

Source: PTI