Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik has sought 95 per cent vaccine allocation for the state from the Centre.

Naveen raised the demand on Friday during a virtual interaction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi which was also attended by chief ministers from other states. The chief minister argued that Odisha had been performing very well on the vaccination front with its waste percentage being the lowest in the country.

Naveen, however, said that due to low presence of private hospitals in the state, lifting of the vaccines by these hospitals from the 25 per cent quota has been comparatively less. Recalling his earlier communication with the central government on the issue, he said that Odisha had written to the Government of India to increase the allocation of vaccines to the state government to 95 per cent and reduce the allocation to private hospitals to 5 per cent. He said this would help the state increase the pace of vaccination.

Voicing his concern over the anticipated third wave of Covid likely to impact children, the chief minister urged the Prime Minister to accord priority to vaccines for this age group. “I would like to request that the vaccines for the age group — 12-18 years may be prioritised and rolled out at the earliest,” he proposed.

As it is Odisha has been making preparations to face the possible third wave of the pandemic with focus on upgrading the health infrastructure for children. While special paediatric wards in hospitals are being set up doctors are being specially trained to deal with the possible complications that might be seen among children affected by the new mutant of the coronavirus.

At the same time an all out effort is being made to ramp up the vaccination drive which was hit recently by shortage of vaccines. The drive had to be halted in several districts. Officials, however, hope that the drive would be back on the track soon with fresh supply of vaccines reaching the state.