Naveen Patnaik takes Covaxin, appeals others to come forward

BHUBANESWAR: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik and Odisha Legislative Assembly speaker SN Patro were among several elderly people who took the Covid vaccine on first day inoculation of third phase when people above 60 years age and those above 45 years with comorbidities started getting the shots.
Both took Covaxin since all eligible people in Bhubaneswar have been allotted Covaxin while people in rest parts of the state are getting Covishield, government sources said.
Naveen (74), who took the vaccine at Vidhan Sabha dispensary, shared news about his first dose vaccination in twitter and expressed his gratefulness to scientists and health workers for their race against time to deliver the vaccines to people. “Appeal to all eligible people to come forward and get vaccinated for a #CovidFreeOdisha,” part of his tweet read.
Patro (73) too appealed all eligible people to come forward for vaccination. “As an infant, we all have taken BCG vaccine and many more after that in our lifetime. This is another shot that is required at this point in time. There is no reason to get apprehensive,” Patro said. Deputy speaker Rajanikant Singh and another BJD MLA, Bhupinder Singh, too took the first shot.
Many elderly people were seen waiting for their turn at a vaccination centre in Capital Hospital by doing on-site registration. After initial glitches in CoWIN portal, the state switched to offline mode to inoculate people who turned up.
In a message to the district collectors, municipal Commissioners and chief district medical and public health officers, additional chief secretary (health) Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra wrote to undertake COVID vaccination of age appropriate group of citizens in off-line mode to prevent inconvenience to elderly persons in queue in case of any issues with Co-WIN portal.
The offline vaccination was done after collecting mobile number, identity proof (Adhhar / voter ID card), name, date of birth, gender and co-morbidity certificate from registered medical practitioners (for 45 to 59 years age group)
Director family welfare Bijay Panigrahi said the portal was no opening initially but started functioning well in the afternoon. “Once Co-WIN portal started functioning normally, the data are being uploaded,” he said.
On the first day, the exercise was undertaken in 153 vaccination centres across state, he said.
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