Odisha all set to hold COVID vaccine mock drill today

Bhubaneswar, Jan 02: The Odisha government has said it is prepared to conduct a dry run for COVID-19 vaccination programme at 31 places across the state on January 2. Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, P K Mohapatra said the dry run of vaccination programme will be held in 30 district headquarters hospitals and the Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar.

He said dedicated and well trained personnel were deployed in each centre for the exercise. After its arrival in Odisha, the vaccine will be kept in the state vaccine store from where it will be sent to districts in two phases.

The vaccine will be transported to centres through 1222 vehicles in ice lined refrigerators (ILRs), said Health and Family Welfare Department Director and Vaccine in-charge Bijay Panigrahi. Before Saturday's nationwide exercise, the earlier dry run drill had been conducted in Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Assam and Gujarat on December 28 and 29.

Mohapatra said about 3.70 lakh people including health workers, front line workers and others have been registered for getting the vaccine in the first phase. Meanwhile, Mohapatra said no new strain of Coronavius has been found in any of the samples collected in the state. He said the state has traced all the UK returnees so far.