BHUBANESWAR: The Puri district administration has urged the state government to allow second dose Covishield vaccination for servitors of Jagannath Temple ahead of the 84 days prescribed interval keeping the Rath Yatra in mind.
At present, the Centre has allowed those who are flying abroad for studies, jobs or to take part in sports events like the Tokyo Olympics to get their second dose of Covishield after the 28-day interval.
“It is necessary to fully vaccinate the servitors of Jagannath Temple before Rath Yatra, which is on July 12.
More than 80% of the servitors have already taken their first dose of Covishield.
With Rath Yatra just a month away, many of them cannot be fully vaccinated under the existing criteria of 84-day gap between the first and second dose,” Puri district collector Samarth Verma said.
On Thursday, the state government said either fully vaccinated servitors or those whose RT-PCR test reports return negative, would be allowed to take part in Rath Yatra at Puri.
“I have written a letter to the state government and sought relaxation of the prescribed interval for the second dose of Covishield for the servitors.
As per procedure, the state government would take approval of the Centre.
If our proposal is accepted, we will be able to fully vaccinate all the eligible servitors,” Verma said.
It must be noted that chief minister Naveen Patnaik had recently approved early vaccination of servitors on priority in the run up to the state’s biggest festival.
Of the target beneficiaries of 4,300 in the 18-44 age group, at least 3,622 servitors (84.23%) have received the first dose.
In the 45+ category, at least 3,158 of 3,900 servitors (around 80.97%) have got their first jab.
Since the gap between first and second dose should be at least 84 days, only 1,045 servitors from the target population of 3,900 in the 45+ category have been able to complete their full vaccine quota.
Not a single servitor in the 18-44 age group has so far been eligible for second dose.
The government has been giving Covaxin in Bhubaneswar and Covishield in rest of the state.
The gap between the first and second dose of Covaxin remains 28 days, while that of Covishield has changed.
Spurious Favipiravir seized in Cuttack The Drug Control Administration on Friday raided a medicine store near Kanika Chowk in Cuttack and seized 17,000 spurious Favipiravir tablets.
Drugs controller A S Das said the medicine mentioned that it was manufactured by a pharmaceutical company based in Solan, Himachal Pradesh.
However, on verification it was found that no such company exists.
The medicines have been seized.
Further tests on the samples are on, he said.
Officials said the total seizure amounts to Rs 69 lakh.
TNN