Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Thursday assured Prime Minister Narendra Modi that Odisha Government is ready to tackle rise in COVID cases in the state and sought sufficient doses of vaccines to ramp up the vaccination program.
“We have reactivated our system to tackle the new rise in the Covid cases especially in districts bordering some states with high incidence of the virus,” Mr.Patnaik informed the Prime Minister during a review with Chief Ministers of all states.
Asserting that Odisha has been doing well in vaccination programme with among the lowest wastage in the country and efficient system of administering the vaccine to eligible persons, he said the State Government has not been able to ramp up the vaccination due to supply issues.
“We are currently able to vaccinate 2.5 lakh persons per day and have capability to increase further. We request that at least 10 days stock of the vaccines is ensured for Odisha,” he said
He requested the Union Government for support in State Government’s Covid management.
“We thank the Union Government for allowing the states, under SDRF guidelines, to spend up to 50% of the annual allocation for Covid-related activities during 2020-21. The same guidelines may be continued for the year 2021-22 as well,” he urged.
Mr.Patnaik said during 2020-21, Odisha had requested for Rs 400 crore under Emergency Covid Response Plan (ECRP), but received only Rs 146 crores.
“In view of the new wave of Covid, it is requested that at least Rs 300 crores be released to Odisha for 2021-22 for Covid Management,” he said.
Mr.Patnaik said the entire country has to put up a united front against this pandemic and Odisha will continue to provide support in this fight.
