Bhubaneswar: Since journalists have been declared as ‘Covid Warriors’ therefore those who have completed a gap of nine months after taking their second dose of Covid vaccine can take ‘precaution’ dose, informed State Nodal Officer for Immunisation-cum-Family Welfare Director Dr Bijay Panigrahi.
While stating that there is an all-out effort to complete vaccination in the State at the earliest, Dr Panigrahi informed that as of now, 5, 49, 08619 doses of the Covid vaccine have been administered in the State.
Out of that 3,14,01141 are first dose, 2,32,19,297 are both doses, 11,79,452 doses have been administered to 15-8-year-olds which is 50% of the target and 2,88,181 precaution doses have been administered.
On the other hand, infections have remained more or less constant, said Public Health Director Dr Niranjan Mishra.
Dr Mishra informed that there has been a fall in the speed at which infection was rising, case doubling has reduced.
He informed that the State currently has 88,000 active cases but only 1230 have been hospitalized which is a subject of consolation. As of now, there is no pressure on the healthcare system, he added.
Dr Mishra said that since there are no patients in the ICU and there is no requirement for oxygen support we can say that the overall situation is under control.
Infection is high in the four districts of Sundargarh, Khordha, Cuttack, and Sambalpur and the local administration has been asked to increase surveillance, the Public Health Director said.
Speaking on OmiSure kits, Dr Mishra said that those are for sample study or epidemic study.
