Odisha to launch massive vax drive for those yet to receive jab

BHUBANESWAR: With the Centre asking all states to launch special drive “Har Ghar Dastak” (knock every door) to increase daily Covid vaccination coverage, Odisha has planned a massive exercise to reach out to those, who haven’t yet received a single dose.
It will focus on Left-Wing Extremist (LWE) affected and inaccessible areas apart from places having tribal population, especially the particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTG). The tribal-dominated places, the cut-off regions (where connectivity is poor) and Maoist areas, where people don’t easily come out to take the vaccine have witnessed very slow progress in vaccination.
“For the special drive, we have involved panchayat representatives besides ASHA, anganwadi workers and auxiliary nurse midwives (ANM). They have been asked to pay a visit to every household even in the remotest areas to make a list so that all uncovered people take the vaccine at the nearest site. The ASHA workers are already on the job of visiting people, who are due to take the final dose of Covid vaccine to expedite second dose coverage,” said Bijay Panigrahi, director, family welfare.
He said the main challenge that is staring at them is bringing the unvaccinated ones to the vaccination sites and administer a dose. “We have 67 lakh people left to receive the first dose according to the revised target of 3.25 crore beneficiaries as we have already administered 2.58 crore people with the first dose. The drive that will start from Tuesday will greatly help achieve it within the December-end deadline,” Panigrahi added.
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