Bhubaneswar: The State Government has administered 18,329 doses of Covid-19 vaccines to prisoners locked up in various jails of Odisha.
Directorate of Prisons and Correctional Services headed by DG Prisons, Santosh Upadhyay coordinated with Department of Health & Family Welfare for such arrangements.
According to official sources, 16,253 prisoners have received the first dose of vaccines while 2076 got both doses, till August 4. At all India level, 1,65,108 got first dose and 1,65,108 received second jab.
The Covid-19 vaccination of prisoners is included and recorded under the vaccination of ‘Persons without Prescribed Identity Cards’. It means, the prisoners are getting the jabs without having any identity proof card.
Inmates in mental health institutions, citizens in old age homes, road side beggars, people residing in rehabilitation centres/camps and any other identified eligible persons, aged 18 years or more, and not having any of the nine prescribed individual photo ID cards have also been getting vaccines in a similar process, the source said.
The Government of India has shared a Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) regarding ‘Covid-19 vaccination of persons without prescribed identity cards through Co-WIN’ with all States/UTs in May 2021. Accordingly, the vaccines are being given, they said.
Covid-19 vaccination is an ongoing and dynamic process, which is being guided by the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC) on the basis of concurrent scientific evidence.
It is expected that eligible beneficiaries aged 18 years and above, including prisoners, will be vaccinated by December 2021, the source informed.
