About 59 per cent of the eligible people are yet to receive the booster dose of the coronavirus vaccines in Odisha and the state government has urged the Centre to supply the shots to expedite vaccination drive, an official said.

The Odisha government is also planning to hold next year’s state board examinations for classes 10 and 12 adhering to the Covid guidelines.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is scheduled to hold a review meeting of the state’s coronavirus situation on Tuesday.

“Only 41 per cent of the 3.25 crore eligible people in the state have taken the precautionary dose. The remaining 59 per cent should get it free of cost as earlier,” said Family Welfare Director Bijay Panigrahi, who is also the nodal officer for immunisation.

Panigrahi said that there is no state-sponsored vaccination drive after November 28 in Odisha. However, inoculation is underway in private hospitals.

The Odisha government has on December 23 written a letter to the Centre seeking Covid vaccines to start inoculation drives again, he said.

Health Secretary Shalini Pandit said that the number of new Covid-19 cases in the state is around 10 per day for the past two months.

Meanwhile, School and Mass Education Minister SR Dash said that arrangements are being made to hold next year’s state board exams for classes 10 and 12 adhering to Covid-19 protocols.

Dash appealed to the students to use masks and maintain social distancing in classes.

Though the use of masks is not made mandatory now, the minister said it is better to protect oneself from the infection as Omicron sub-variant BF.7 has created havoc in certain countries.

It came to the fore on December 21 that one case of BF.7, apparently the strain driving China's current surge of covid cases, has been detected in Odisha.

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