Odisha Chief Minister Seeks Rs 300 Crore From Centre For Covid Management

The Odisha government wrote to Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Harsh Vardhan recently, stating that 50 per cent of over 1400 vaccination centres have stopped functioning due to shortage of Covisheild doses.

With half of Odisha's vaccination centres having halted activities for want of Covishield, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday drew attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the problem, and requested him to ensure that the state gets to stock up doses 10 days in advance for the inoculation drive to run smoothly. Mr Patnaik, while attending a meeting of chief ministers with Modi, also sought Rs 300 crore from the Centre for managing the COVID-19 situation. "We have not been able to ramp up the vaccination drive due to low supply. We are currently vaccinating 2.5 lakh people every day, and have capability of increasing the number. We request that an initiative be taken to ensure that Odisha gets to stock up doses 10 days in advance," he said. Asserting that the state has taken measures to make sure that vaccine wastage is low, and put in place an "efficient mechanism" to administer shots to all eligible persons, Patnaik said the state has "reactivated" its system to tackle the rise in the COVID-19 cases.