The Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy who is also the chairman of the Steering Committee holds its first State meeting to devise innovative strategies for monitoring of COVID-19 vaccine coverage was conducted on Friday. Additional Chief Secretary of Health department PK Mohapatra has conveyed that the state has taken up the logistic requirements with the Centre and the Union Health Ministry has been requested to provide financial assistance to the State. 

In order to manage the cold chain and logistics for the vaccination the state government has reportedly sought Rs 33.5 crore central assistance. “The process will involve huge manpower and logistic support and take months to be completed,” he said. Earlier last week, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had said that that the elderly and expectant mothers will be administered vaccine during the first phase, along with the healthcare workers.

The state which is instantly ready has already prepared a database of 3,17,692 healthcare workers (HCWs) along with that of 8,267 vaccinators. As many as 29,276 session sites have been identified so far for this purpose. As per the reports by a news agency, the Odisha state requires 936 small ice-lined refrigerators (ILRs), 70 large ILRs, 30 large deep freezers, 7,331 needle-cum-hub cutter, 506 sharp pits, 1,473 data loggers, two walk-in coolers and two 15 KVA generators, besides 10 crore syringes, to go about with the vaccinating task. 

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