South Dinajpur: vaccine crunch hits inoculation

BALURGHAT: vaccination drive in South Dinajpur has been stopped due to shortage of vaccine doses for new beneficiaries.

Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr Sukumar Dey said the district Health department has temporarily stopped vaccination drive for new people because of the shortage.

"We have sent the requirement to the higher authority and requested to supply vaccine doses on an emergency basis. At present, we are only administering jabs to those who have taken their first doses already," he said, also adding that the concerned Health department has already provided around 2 lakh jabs so far.

In South Dinajpur, as many as 161 people were infected with the deadly virus over the past 24 hours while the district's active cases stood at 791. About 8,443 people have been infected till date. On Thursday, 46 people were cured and discharged from hospital. Eight serious patients are currently undergoing treatment at Balurghat Covid hospital.

In another development, in view of the COVID-19 second wave, a special campaign and drive for pandemic protocol awareness and mask distribution for the common people was organised in different places of Balurghat city including old Sub-jail market, Mini-market, Tahabazar market, Bus Stand market, Saheb Kachari Agri market, Chalk Bhabani market and New market on Thursday. District Magistrate C Murugan, Superintendent of Police Debarshi Dutta, CMOH Dr Dey, District Information and Cultural Officer Santanu Chakraborty along with many high-ranked administrative officials took part in the programme.