Bhubaneswar: Seeking modification in the vaccination policy, the state government has urged the Centre to allocate Covid-19 vaccines in 95:5 ratio between the state government and private hospitals instead of 75:25 earlier.
State Health and Family Welfare Minister Naba Kishore Das in a letter to Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Harsh Vardhan Saturday said that the vaccination activities will be “severely affected” if the Centre does not change its guidelines.
Earlier June 14, Additional Chief Secretary, Health, Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra had written to the Union Health secretary for a similar demand.
The minister in the letter mentioned that the procurement by private hospitals in Odisha is very negligible.
As per the revised Central guidelines that came into effect June 21 across the country, 25 per cent of monthly production of vaccines by domestic manufacturers will be procured by private hospitals. However, till date, only seven private hospitals in Odisha have been able to procure vaccines from the manufacturers, Das said in his letter.
Noting that the presence of private hospitals is very low and limited to only about 5 per cent of the total healthcare sector in Odisha, Das said the state government apprehends that, as per the existing guideline, the state may lose out its proportionate share of 25 per cent allocation of vaccines to the private sectors.
Das urged Vardhan to revise the allocation of vaccines to Odisha at a ratio from 75:25 to 95:5 keeping in mind the ground reality. And, the share of the private sector may be handed over to the state government, he demanded.
“Since June 21, 2021, we are able to vaccinate more than 3 lakh beneficiaries per day and will continue our endeavour to achieve 100 per cent vaccination in the state.” Das mentioned in the letter.
