Health department portal to publish list of all CVCs across state

KOLKATA: After the police busted a fake vaccination racket, the state Health department has decided to publish the list of vaccination centres of Bengal on its website. It will also upload the necessary updates from time to time so that people get information relating to the vaccination centre and the availability of doses.

Meanwhile, BJP president J P Nadda on Tuesday attacked Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, alleging that Covid-19 vaccination is lowest in Bengal and fake inoculation camps are being organised here, drawing a sharp retort from the TMC which claimed that the Centre has failed to provide an adequate number of vaccines to the state.

"This is the only state where you would see fake vaccination camps being run. We have never heard about fake vaccination. Even TMC MP Mimi Chakraborty got a jab of the fake vaccine," he said.

The BJP president is addressing virtually the first executive committee meeting of the party's state unit after the Assembly polls. Denying the BJP president's accusations, TMC claimed that the Centre's vaccination programme is in a "mess and it has failed to provide an adequate number of vaccines to Bengal". TMC also stated that the fake vaccination camp was an isolated incident and the state government is in no way associated with it.

The state Health department has already vaccinated 2.17 crore people cumulatively till Tuesday. The state government has decided to administer the second dose on people on a priority basis, which is primarily because of the short supply by the Centre, a health official said. "We have inoculated 2.17 crore doses till Tuesday through more than 2 lakh sessions together in government and private sector. The state government has received 1.99 crore doses and vaccinated 1.98 crore with that quantity. The vaccine utilisation is one of the best in the country and there is a net negative wastage and thus, about 5 lakh doses could be saved by the state," said Dr Ajay Chakraborty, Director of Health Services.

He further stated that more than 41 lakh people under the super-spreader category have been vaccinated till now. The state has given due priority to the elderly and vulnerable population and could make a perfect proportion of vaccination under different age groups. Among the beneficiaries, around 63.39 lakh people were within the age group of 18-44 yrs, around 82.56 lakh (45-60 years) and 71.11 lakh people above 60 years of age. Gender-wise also, around 95.58 lakh females were vaccinated against 1.21 core males, Dr Chakraborty added. The state government has procured 18 lakh doses directly from the manufacturers by spending Rs 59 crore from the state's exchequer. Even the vaccine wastage is negative in the state.

According to recent government data, Kerala and West Bengal recorded negative wastage of Covid vaccines in May, saving 1.10 lakh and 1.61 lakh doses respectively, while Jharkhand reported maximum wastage of 33.95 percent.

"Currently, the state has the capacity of vaccinating at least 5 lakh a day, which can be stretched to 7-8 lakh a day subject to vaccine availability. Since there is huge scarcity of the jab, it is decided to give priority to the second dose and at least 50 percent of the available shots will be utilised for that. It is expected to get 4 lakh doses by evening on Wednesday, but that is very inadequate considering the present level of 3 lakh vaccinations on a daily basis," added Dr Chakraborty.

It may be mentioned here that in all the districts, around 50 percent of the available vaccines will be reserved for the second dose only. For the KMC, only the second dose will be given in the next two days to accommodate this shortage. The state government is fully committed to early vaccination of all.

Around 2,76,378 people have been vaccinated in the past 24 hours. On Monday, around 2,97,896 people received the shots across the state.

Meanwhile, on visiting wbhealth.gov.in, users will come across an option called 'Active Covid Vaccination Centre list'. Once a user hits the icon, he or she will be directed to a page where there will be an option of a detailed list of the districts, blocks, CVC IDs, names of the CVCs. There is also a list of all centres run by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC). Around 1,633 vaccination centres have been listed on the website.

"The portal will provide a detailed list of 27 health districts and the camps that are being held under each district. The list of the centres and the availability of the vaccination will be updated on a daily basis. Centres whose names do not feature in the list are not valid," said a senior official.

It will also help the people to check any incident of fake vaccination in the centres.