Odisha vaccination drive: State urges Centre to revise COVID vaccine allocation ratio

On Monday, June 14, the Odisha government recommended the Centre to allocate the COVID vaccines between the state and the private hospitals in the ratio of 95:5 instead of 75:25 per cent as per the revised guidelines for implementation of the COVID vaccination programme. Recently, the Union health ministry had suggested a move aimed at ensuring that the administration of doses by private hospitals and centres is equitable across the country and said that States should collate the demand for coronavirus vaccine doses in private vaccination centres in their region and either coordinate the procurement of doses themselves or let the Centre do it. 

The Odisha government pointed out that private hospitals provide health services to only 5% of the state population and so stated that the Centre needs to be given a larger share by the vaccine manufacturers. 

PK Mohapatra's take on COVID vaccine allocation

PK Mohapatra, IAS officer, sought an increase in the Odisha government's share of COVID vaccine to 95 per cent and allocation of 5 per cent vaccine to private hospitals in the state, in a letter to the Secretary of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Additional Chief Secretary of Health and Family Welfare Department. 

Mohapatra informed, "In the guideline, it has been mentioned that 25% of monthly production of vaccines by the domestic manufactures can be directly procured by the private hospitals. However, till date, only four private hospitals in Odisha have been able to procure vaccine directly from the manufacturers".

The Ministry of Health and Family in its revised guidelines for implementation of the COVID vaccination campaign on June 8, 2021, said it will come into effect from June 21, 2021, across the country. The distribution of the vaccine to the private health care sector may be handed over to the state government for subsequent mobilisation and allocation to private hospitals was also mentioned in Mohapatra's letter.

COVID situation in Odisha

To date, Odisha has reported a total of 8.52 lakh COVID active cases with 7.97 lakh recoveries and 3,302 deaths. The state has administered a total of 91,07,024 COVID vaccine doses across 906 vaccination sites.

(Image Credit: PTI)