Drive to give 1st jab to hawkers, scribes & transport staff begins in South Dinajpur

BALURGHAT: The vaccination drive for administering the first dose on transport employees, hawkers and media persons was conducted on Monday in South Dinajpur as per initiative of the district Health department.

An official said the jabs were being provided from the three centres of the district namely Balurghat Stadium, Gangarampur Stadium and Buniadpur College.

"The age group of the vaccine beneficiaries has been divided into two categories. One category includes people in the age group of 18 and 44 years. The other category is of beneficiaries above 44 years of age. It is our target to complete the first dose of vaccination for transport personnel, hawkers and media persons within seven days," said the official.

Initially, the district Health department had asked the Regional Transport Office and civic bodies of Balurghat, Buniadpur and Gangarampur to send the name of the beneficiaries from the Transport department and hawkers respectively for the jabs. The names of the media persons were provided by the District Information and Cultural Office. District Information and Cultural Officer Santanu Chakraborty said: "The first dose of vaccination is being given to the media persons from the three centres of the district-Balurghat, Gangarampur and Buniadpur in two days-Monday and Tuesday. Around 50 journalists have been enlisted for the jabs."

Meanwhile, the district Health department had earlier taken the decision to provide the vaccine dose to the media persons after the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee declared them as Covid fighters.

Notably, the district has recently received 10,000 doses of vaccine from the state government. At present, the number of Covid cases is rapidly increasing in South Dinajpur. Around 200 people are getting infected every day. Serious patients are being treated at Balurghat and Gangarampur Covid hospitals. Asymptomatic and stable patients are staying in Safe Home and Home Isolation.