West Bengal fears slow vax drive in Puja, gives 50L doses in a week

Kolkata, October 12, 2021:

Ramping up the inoculation drive before the Durga Puja, the state has administered around 50 lakh doses in the past seven days.

The measure was taken up keeping in mind that the vaccination drive might slow down during the festivity. Even as the state health department will keep all its vaccination sites attached with medical colleges and other hospitals open during Durga Puja except on Ashtami, officials said the turnout is expected to be very low during the festival. The drive was ramped up to make up for this speed breaker in drive during Durga Puja.

Even as Kolkata already has got into a festive mood, the health department on Monday activated close to 2,287 vaccination sites in the government sector along with 244 private ones to achieve a respectable vaccination target. Till 6 pm, Bengal was inching towards 5 lakh doses for the day.

“People, particularly in the city, are already in Puja mood. We expect a very low turnout during the festival that is why we tried to cover as much as people possible before the festival starts,” said a senior health official.

On Monday morning, Bengal had 30 lakh doses in its stock. The state got fresh supply of 8 lakh doses in the evening. More supply of vials is expected during the Durga Puja as well.

“This month, we have already administered 70 lakh jabs out which around 50 lakhs have been achieved in the past seven days. No doubt the inoculation drive will lose speed during the festivity, hence, we jacked up the drive ahead of the festival,” said Ashim Das Malakar, state family welfare officer.

In fact, on Saturday (October 9), the state recorded the highest doses administered in a day with around 13.5 lakh jabs.

Altogether, Bengal had dispensed over 6.5 crore doses since the beginning of the drive. Of them, over 4.7 crore jabs are second dose. The state has an eligible adult population of about 7 crore. Hence, close to 67% of the eligible population has got at least one dose. In Kolkata, only 322 jab sites operated on Monday of which 215 were government-run CVCs. A total of close to 74 lakh doses have been administered in Kolkata as on Monday of which 47.2 lakh are first dose. ET Health