BHUBANESWAR: Odisha’s plan to administer at least three lakh doses per day may be shortlived with the Centre having promised just over 40 lakh doses of Covid vaccines to the state in July.
According to the proposed allocation by the Centre, the state would get 40,67,880 doses of vaccine, including 33,75,730 doses of Covishield and 6,92,150 doses of Covaxin next month.
They include 10.16 lakh (25%) doses for private hospitals — 8.43 lakh doses of Covishield and 1.73 lakh doses of Covaxin.
This puts the brakes on the state’s ambitious plan to vaccinate at least three lakh people daily, for which it would need 90 lakh doses a month and scale it up further.
The state has so far administered 1.12 crore doses and is left with around 10 lakh doses.
The total eligible population for inoculation in the state (all above 18 years) is 3.20 crore.
Authorities said the quantity is indicative and may increase.
“We hope the proposed quantity will be revised upward since it also depends on the pace of vaccination and vaccine wastage.
The allocation is being reviewed every week,” additional chief secretary (health) Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra said.
“We will continue to maintain the three lakh level and may increase it further unless we exhaust all the available doses.
In the coming months, vaccine production in the country is being ramped up.
The short supply may soon be over,” he said.
Odisha’s wastage is minus three per cent with 103 being vaccinated for every 100 doses.
Around 1.12 crore doses have been administered using vials of 1.08 crore doses.
For the 25% private hospital share, the health department has asked the district collectors to aggregate hospital-wise demand, giving preference to hospitals empanelled under the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) and Biju Swasthya Kalyna Yojana (BSKY), and send it to the health department.
The government has asked the district administrations to sensitize private hospitals so that the entire quota meant for private hospitals in the state are lifted.
On June 14, the state had requested the Centre to reduce the private hospitals’ vaccine share from 25% to 5% and increase the state’s share to 95% in view of the assessment that most people would like to take the vaccine in government hospitals.
The Centre is to concede to the request.