Bhubaneswar: The Health department is all set to launch a massive anti-Covid inoculation drive in all the blocks and ULBs from Monday to achieve the target of three lakh vaccinations per day in the state.
The boost to the vaccination drive comes following the Centre taking up the responsibility of procuring vaccines from the manufacturers for all segments of beneficiaries from June 21. Following assurance of constant supply of vaccine doses, the Health department now plans to scale up the inoculation drive.
Bijay Panigrahi, Director, Odisha Health and Family department, said, “We plan to vaccinate three lakh people per day from June 21. All district administrations have been given their vaccination targets in proportion to the local population.”
Currently, Odisha has around 1,500 vaccination centres and the government plans to increase the number of such centres. “We plan to scale up the number of vaccination centres to 2,000 to cater to the needs of the people,” he said.
“As per the plan, each block and Notified Area Council (NAC) will have five vaccination centres. Each municipality and municipal corporation will have 10 and 20 vaccination centres respectively. If the need arises, we will have more centres in each of these areas,” he added.
Earlier, state Health Minister Naba Kishore Das had announced that the government wanted to augment the vaccination drive and extend it for people in the 18-44 year group to new areas.