Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Government on Monday urged Centre to allocate Covid-19 vaccines to the state at a ratio of 95:5 for government and private hospitals instead of 75:25 fixed as per Central guidelines.
Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra has written a letter to his counterpart at the Union Health Ministry, in this regard.
The Centre has revised its guidelines for implementation of Covid vaccination program on 8 June, 2021, which will come into effect from June 21 across the country.
“In the said guidelines, it has been mentioned that 25 per cent of monthly production of vaccines by domestic manufacturers can be directly procured by private hospitals. However, till date, only four private hospitals in Odisha have been able to procure vaccines directly from the manufacturers,” Mr.Mohapatra said in his letter.
The presence of private hospitals in Odisha is very low and limited to only about 5 per cent of the total health care sector in the State. Hence, the Odisha Government is apprehended that as per the existing guidelines, Odisha will lose out on its proportionate share of 25 per cent allocation of vaccines to the private sector, he pointed out.
In view of the low presence of private health care sector in Odisha, the ACS urged the Union Health Secretary to revise the vaccine allocation ratio of 75:25 among Government and Private hospitals to 95:5 ratio, keeping in mind the ground reality.
Further, Mr.Mohapatra said the share of the private sector should be handed to the State Government for subsequent mobilization and allocation to private hospitals.
Last Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that Centre will provide free vaccines to all people above 18 plus from 21 June.
Meanwhile, Mr.Mohapatra, in another letter, asked all Districts Collectors, Commissioners of Municipal Corporations and Chief Districts Medical & Public Health Officers to conduct vaccination of the beneficiaries, whose second dose was due since 10 June.
With the analysis of database in CoWIN portal (9 June, 2021), 64,465 numbers of Health Care Workers, 34,893 Frontline Workers (FLWs) and 93,191 citizens in the State, who are already due for second dose vaccination, but yet to be vaccinated, he said.
The district level officers have been asked to immediately take steps to ensure second dose vaccination of all the above persons mobilizing ASHA, Anganwadi and health works.
They have further asked to regularly monitor the second dose coverage Covid Vaccination Centre-wise and Block-wise for timely vaccination of due beneficiaries.
The ACS Health advised to conduct on-site vaccination of the drop out beneficiaries on priority basis.
