Booster dose: Civic bodies asked to speed up process of giving jabs

KOLKATA: State Health Department has directed various civic bodies to accelerate the process of administration of booster doses in those pockets, where rate of vaccination is comparatively low.

It may be mentioned here that booster doses for general population above 18 years of age was started in the state on July 15 completely free-of-cost.

The programme was started across the country after the Centre announced free vaccination for general population. The programme will continue till September 30.

Ever since the administration of booster doses had started, Health department had set a target of administering 6 lakh doses on daily basis.

State government had chalked out a plan to complete vaccination on around 5 crore people within September. To meet the target, Health Department needs to administer around 6 lakh daily doses.

As the overall vaccination programme slowed down in some pockets under some civic bodies, state Health officials are sceptical whether 5 crore vaccination can be completed on time. Sometimes the half of the daily target could not be fulfilled.

The Health Department has identified the areas where the rate of vaccination is slow.

Around 1 crore people have so far been brought under the booster doses in Bengal. As the Covid cases went up around two months ago, the centre announced free booster for general people.

In the first week when the booster vaccination was started, around 27 lakh people were administered booster doses. The rate of vaccination was quite high. The figure dropped later.

Health officials said that the tendency to get vaccine slightly dropped as infection curve flattened.

The department is now trying to ensure that people in the districts where vaccination rate is low complete boosters. The department has given utmost emphasis on those districts which are still lagging. Instructions have been given to the Chief Medical officer of health (CMoHs) of the districts in this regard. They have been asked that vaccination camps can be held in the localities, in addition to the existing vaccination centres.