KMC to start vaccination in all 144 wards from today

KOLKATA: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will start vaccination in all its 144 wards across the city from Friday to speed up the inoculation process amid a surge in Covid positive cases since the beginning of March.

The four Safe Homes in the city, which were closed down with positive cases showing a downward trend in January- February, will soon be reopened. Safe Homes are being set up in Rajarhat, Topsia and also at Kishore Bharati stadium. Each Safe Home would have at least 100-110 beds.

A high-level meeting was held at the KMC headquarters on Thursday in presence of Home Secretary H.K. Dwivedi, Principal Secretary (Health) N.S. Nigam, KMC administrator Khalil Ahmed and other senior officials in connection with the rise in Covid cases that plummeted to 5892 in the state as per Health Department's report and Kolkata contributing to 1601 fresh cases.

"The infrastructure has been put in place so that vaccination can be carried out in all the 144 wards in the KMC from Friday. The four Safe Homes at Tiljala, Ananadapur, Rajarhat and Kishore Bharati Stadium in Jadavpur is being reopened soon," a senior KMC official said.

The official added that the tie-ups between hotels and hospitals for satellite facilities are also being revived so that the former can serve as care centres for Covid patients with little or no symptoms.

The Hotel and Restaurant Association of Eastern India (HRAEI) is hopeful of arranging at least 500 such rooms by the end of this week.

A private hospital in Salt Lake has already collaborated with three such hotels in close proximity to it for lodging of Covid patients. During the first wave of Covid, the HRAEI had organised 2000 such rooms.

Areas in South Kolkata like Bhowanipore and New Alipore have emerged as hot spots in the second Covid wave.

Bhowanipore has reported around 150 positive cases in the last 10 days while New Alipore has witnessed 170 cases in the past two weeks.

The Garia- Patuli stretch near EM Bypass is also having a reasonable jump in Covid positive cases.

Meawnhile, private hospitals in the city have been asked to increase Covid beds.