Corona jab scarcity : Odisha halts vaccination at 1,035 sites
Bhubaneswar, Apr 18: Facing acute shortage of COVID-19 vaccines, Odisha government Saturday halted its innoculation drive in over 1,000 session sites including in the hotspot Nuapada district, a senior health department official said.
The states vaccine stocks will be exhausted in two days, Family Welfare Director Bijay Panigrahi said.
Only 56,472 people were given jabs at 465 session sites on Saturday against 91,195 who had been vaccinated in 781 centres on Friday, he said.
The state has so far vaccinated 49,58,447 people, the health department official said.
Panigrahi said that the vaccination drive could not be taken up in rural Odisha due to the scarcity of Covishield vaccines. Covaxin is being administered in Bhubaneswar, while it is Covishield in the rest of the state.
Vaccination in all session sites in Koraput, Nuapada and Jharsuguda, as well as the urban areas of Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Bargarh, Balangir, Kalahandi, Nabarangpur and Malkangiri has been stopped due to the non-availability of doses, he said.
These ten districts, which share borders with other states, have been the worst hit during the second wave of COVID-19 in Odisha.
A senior official in the Health and Family Welfare department said that the state has planned a total 427 session sites in 1500 centres. But no session site has been planned in the districts of Deogarh, Jharsuguda, Koraput, Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Rayagada, Sambalpur and Subarnapur.
Earlier in the day Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the issue of intermittent supply of COVID-19 vaccines in the state which is creating a challenge in meeting the demand in the state.
Patnaik had earlier sought 25 lakh vaccine doses to increase the daily vaccination target to 3 lakh a day in Odisha.
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11-year-old dies by suicide after sexual assault in Bareilly; accused arrested
Bareilly (UP) (PTI): A 26-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl, who later died by suicide due to trauma, police said on Wednesday.
The post-mortem report confirmed sexual assault and multiple injuries on the minor's body, including bite marks and nail scratches. The cause of death was found to be hanging, they said.
According to ASP (South) Anshika Verma, the incident came to light on 27 April, when the girl, a Class 8 student, was found hanging at her home in Deoria Abdullaganj village under the Mirganj police station area. Initially, the family reported the death as suicide and was reluctant to pursue police action.
"The autopsy report changed the course of the investigation. It confirmed sexual assault and noted severe physical trauma. The cause of death was confirmed as hanging," Verma said.
A breakthrough in the case came from the statement of the victim's younger sister, who told police that the accused, Zeeshan (26), a resident of the same village, frequently loitered near the minor's school and allegedly gave her small sums of money to keep his interactions with her a secret, she said.
Police said that on the day of the incident, the accused allegedly lured the minor and assaulted her. Distressed by the incident, the child later took her own life while her mother was away, police said.
"Based on technical surveillance, CCTV footage, and statements from the family, we established Zeeshan's involvement. He was arrested near the Mirganj weekly market on Tuesday," they said.
(Assistance for overcoming suicidal thoughts is available on the state’s health helpline 104, Tele-MANAS 14416.)
