Bhubaneswar: Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday urged the people of Odisha to take part in the 75-day special campaign against COVID-19, which has started from July 15, and take precautions or booster doses.
In a video message to the people of the State, the Minister said that the COVID cases is rising in different part of the country which is why the Narendra Modi-led Union Government has given priority to intensify the vaccination drive and India, in just 18 months of the outbreak of COVID, has made history in the world by vaccinating more than 200 crore people.
The government is giving two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and now the booster dose for free for the safety of the citizens. The special campaign to give booster doses has started from July 15 and it will continue for the next 75 days.
People coming under the age group of 18-75 years are being vaccinated free during this vaccination drive. However, Odisha’s rate of taking COVID booster doses is lower than the national average as 87 per cent of citizens of the State are yet to take the booster doses.
The Minister further said that till August 4, only 3.23 crore people have received the first and second doses of the vaccine while only 42,34,000 people have taken the booster doses.
He also informed that around 10 per cent of the people of six districts namely Cuttack, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur, Sundergarh, Puri and Angul have not taken the first dose of the vaccine so far and around 25 lakh people in 8 districts of the state have not taken the second dose of the COVID vaccine.
As the rainy season has already started, now there is a risk of further increase of COVID infection and vaccination is the only weapon to fight this epidemic. Therefore, people who are eligible and have not received should take the booster dose with the aim to keep their family, community, state and country safe.
Ms Kalinga