Odisha seeks 50,000 vaccines from Centre as Covid cases rise: Official

With more than 100 cases of coronavirus being reported in Odisha for four days now, the state government Tuesday requested the Centre for at least an additional 50,000 doses of vaccine in the first phase to cover people who have not received the booster dose yet, an official said.

The state director of family welfare Bijay Panigrahi, who is also its nodal officer for immunization, has in his letter to the ministry of health and family welfare sought CorBEvax vaccine for Odisha.

Presently there is a rise in Covid cases in Odisha. Also there is a demand from public for precaution dose vaccination at government facilities, Panigrahi said in the letter.

 

The state does not have any vaccine left since February this, he wrote and requested for at least 50,000 doses of CorBEvax vaccine with long expiry as early as possible.

The state on Tuesday reported 141 fresh infections and the number of active cases in the state has increased to 731. It has been reporting more than 100 new cases for the fourth day on Tuesday.

Odisha public health director Niranjan Mishra said the infections are being reported from 16 districts and asked the people to get themselves tested if they had any symptom.

"The positivity rate in the country is 6.9 per cent whereas it is 2.8 per cent in Odisha," he said.

Of the 5016 samples tested in the last 24 hours, 141 were found to be positive, he added.

The coastal state has so far reported 13,37,798 infections since the outbreak of the pandemic and 13,27,808 patients recuperated from the disease. It reported 9206 deaths due to the virus.