As the Centre allowed Covid-19 vaccination of expectant mothers last week, the Odisha Government would soon begin such a programme, informed Director of Health Services Dr Bijay Mohapatra on Thursday.On June 25, the Centre said pregnant women can and should be vaccinated. “Vaccination is useful for pregnant women and should be given to them,” ICMR chief Dr Balaram Bhargava had said. Regarding the Odisha Government’s fresh guidelines issued on Wednesday, Dr Mohapatra said the partial lockdown was extended in 10 B-category districts) due to the prevailing uncontrolled situation there.
“The virus is spreading in these districts, including Khordha, Cuttack and Puri, due to their environment conducive to the virus. However, good thing is that a few districts, which were earlier classified as Category B, have been shifted to Category A,” he said. “The Government relaxed the lockdown restrictions prioritising people’s livelihood. The infection rate will decline if we all strictly follow Covid-appropriate behaviour,” he said, adding, “We are mainly focusing on three things: vaccination, contact tracing and surveillance. Hopefully, the number of cases will decline in middle of July.”Currently, 500 Covid patients are under ventilator support and 2,000 undergoing treatment in ICUs. The number of casualties is likely to decrease gradually, he stated.