Odisha seeks allocation of 95% vax

Bhubaneswar: In view of the low presence of private healthcare facilities in the State, Odisha Government has urged Centre to allocate 95 per cent Covid-19 vaccines to the government instead of 75 per cent fixed as per Central guidelines.

Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Pradipta Mohapatra has written a letter to his counterpart at Union Health Ministry, in this regard.

The Centre has revised its guidelines for implementation of Covid vaccination programme on June 8, 2021, which will come into effect from June 21 across the country.

As per the revised guidelines, 25 per cent of monthly production of vaccines by domestic manufacturers can be directly procured by private hospitals. However, till date, only four private hospitals in Odisha have been able to procure vaccines directly horn the manufacturers, Mohapatra said in his letter.

The presence of private hospitals in Odisha is very low and limited to only about 5 per cent of the total health care sector in the State. Hence, the Odisha Government is apprehended that as per the existing guidelines, Odisha will lose out on its proportionate share of 25 per cent allocation of vaccines to the private sector, he pointed out.

In view of the low presence of private health care sector in Odisha, Mohapatra urged the Union Health Secretary to revise the vaccine allocation ratio of 75:25 among Government and Private hospitals to 95:5 ratio, keeping in mind the ground reality.

Further, Mohapatra said the share of the private sector should be headed to the State Government for subsequent mobilization and allocation to private hospitals.