Odisha kics off COVID-19 vaccination programme, over 16,000 people to get inoculated on day one

Odisha began its COVID-19vaccination drive on Saturday at 161 session sites across thestate, where 16,100 people will be inoculated, officials said.

A 51-year-old frontline worker at Capital Hospitalbecame the person to be administered the jab around 11 am,shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched thenationwide rollout of the vaccination drive via videoconferencing, they said.

''The first vaccine dose was given to a class-IVfrontline worker at Capital Hospital here. The director of thehospital and a doctor were the next to be inoculated,''Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, P KMohapatra, told reporters here.

Mohapatra said the early recipients were immediatelytaken to an observation room. Those who will be vaccinated onSaturday include healthcare and anganwadi workers.

During an interaction with Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik through video conferencing, the first recipient,Biranchi Naiak, said: ''I got the shot about one hour ago anddo not feel any substantial side effect. I am absolutelyfine.'' Mohapatra said the state government aims to completethe first phase of vaccination of 3.28 lakh people by January25. ''The state has so far received 1.93 lakh doses and expectsmore soon.'' The inoculation drive will be halted on Sunday inorder to observe the impact of the vaccination process, theofficial said.

Another official said the Ministry of Health andFamily Welfare will take feedback from two sites inBhubaneswar and Sundargarh.

Patnaik will also interact with some other recipientsat three sites, sources said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)