No vaccination in city today: Hakim

KOLKATA: Chairman of Board of Administrators, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), Firhad Hakim, said there would be no vaccination in the city on Thursday to commemorate the occasion of National Doctors' Day. At the same time, he hit out at the Centre for inadequate supply of vaccine doses.

Citizens scheduled to be vaccinated on Thursday will be inoculated on July 5 at the same venue and time slot. "We will be offering a second dose of vaccine on Friday, only if we get the supply. The distribution of vaccine is made on the basis of supply from the Centre and we are unaware of the allotment for the state earlier so that we can plan the distribution. We receive vaccines only at night. The next day, it is distributed. And, then the jab is administered to beneficiaries," Hakim said. After holding talks with the state Health Secretary regarding short supply of vaccine, Hakim did not rule out the possibility of keeping inoculation on hold on Saturday and Sunday so that things get normalised from Monday.

"If we consider the KMC area, there is a population of 45 lakh and we have already vaccinated 34 lakh. But people from adjacent places in Howrah, South 24-Parganas and North 24-Parganas also turn up in the facilities of KMC for the jab. We cannot refuse anyone," Hakim asserted. Vaccination in Kolkata that had crossed 50,000 mark on three consecutive days — Thursday, Friday and Saturday last week — nosedived since Monday because of short supply of vaccine doses.

"Today (Wednesday) we inoculated those persons whose second dose was due in the second half from our health centres and 28568 doses were given. The first half was dedicated to child immunisation," a senior KMC official said.