Bhubaneswar: Following the Central government announcement allowing Covid-19 vaccination of expectant mothers a week ago, Odisha government Thursday said that it has plans to start a massive vaccination drive in the state soon.
According to director of health services Bijay Kumar Mohapatra, the drive for vaccination of expectant mothers is currently in a planning stage and will be executed soon.
“Vaccination is useful for pregnant women and should be given to them,” ICMR chief Dr Balaram Bhargava had said earlier. The Centre said June 25 that expectant mothers can be vaccinated.
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Giving his views on the state government’s fresh restrictions on partial lockdown issued Wednesday, the health services director said that partial lockdown has been extended in ten ‘Category B’ districts owing to prevalent uncontrolled situation in those districts.
“Covid-19 has been spreading in the districts including Khurda, Cuttack and Puri as their environment is conducive to the virus. However, good thing is that few districts, which were earlier classified as ‘Category B’, have been shifted to ‘Category A’,” the director said.
“We are mainly focusing on three things: vaccination, contact tracing and surveillance. Hopefully, the number of cases will decline by mid-July, 2021. Currently, 500 Covid-19 patients are on ventilator support and around 2,000 undergoing treatment in ICUs. The number of casualties is likely to decrease gradually,” Mohapatra opined.
PNN
