14th day: Vaccination conducted at 350 sites; Covaxin launched at 3 centres in city

Kolkata: Covid vaccination was successfully conducted at around 350 sites on Wednesday on the 14th day of the inoculation drive. Besides Covishield, Covaxin was also launched at three centres in Kolkata on Wednesday, a senior health official said.

Director of Medical Education, Dr Debasis Bhattacherjee, Mission Director Dr Saumitra Mohon, Programme Officer NHM Smita Sukla, Dr Jyotirmay Pal, HOD medicine department, R G Kar medical College, Dr Rina Ghosh, renowned Pediatrician of Institute of Child Health were among the first few recipients of Covaxin. They received the shots at SSKM and R G Kar Medical College and Hospital.

Altogether 12,725 persons were vaccinated against the target of 35000 (36 per cent) on Wednesday and 45 people were vaccinated with Covaxin. Portal issues hampered the vaccination process on Wednesday as well.

The portal functioned very slowly while SMSs were not delivered to the listed beneficiaries. At least 40-45 persons could not get the Covaxin shots because their names were not found on the portal.

Many dignitaries of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and post graduate trainees were interested to get Covaxin from R G kar Medical College, but they could not be vaccinated due to the portal issues. The drop in vaccination percentage was mostly due to the portal issue, which is yet to be resolved, a senior health official said.

Two minor AEFI cases have been reported on Wednesday, including pain at the injection site and dizziness.

None of the 45 people vaccinated with Covaxin had any AEFI. They are all doing well. They were discharged after half an hour of routine observation, officials stated.

Single day Covid infection in Bengal stood at 201 on Wednesday. As many as 303 patients were released from various hospitals in the past 24 hours. Around 5,70,581 patients were infected in the state so far, out of which 5,55,190 were cured and released from the hospitals. The recovery rate has gone up to 97.30 per cent.

The percentage of positive cases out of sample tested dropped at 7.08.

Bengal has so far carried out 80,58,141 Covid samples till Wednesday out of which 21,812 samples were tested in the past 24 hours. Seven people died of Covid in the past 24 hours taking the total toll to 10,195.

Kolkata has seen two deaths in the past 24 hours while North 24-Parganas has registered three deaths in the past 24 hours.

Around 3,078 people died of Covid in Kolkata so far whereas North 24-Parganas has lost 2,483 people so far.

Kolkata has seen 51 fresh cases in the past 24 hours taking the total tally to 1,27,982.

North 24-Parganas had so far seen a total of 1,21,930 cases, out of which 59 were found positive in the past 24 hours.