State directs civic bodies to increase vaccination centres

KOLKATA: Bengal on Thursday started vaccination for all the people above the age of 45 and also laid great stress on increasing the number of Covid vaccination centers (CVCs) particularly in the urban areas where the infection rate is higher.

The State Health department has also asked the civic bodies to increase the number of CVCs under their jurisdiction.

Chief Medical Officers of Health in the districts have been directed to start CVCs at all the health centers in the rural areas.

As the Covid infection rate in the State is on the rise, the health officials want to give a further boost to the vaccination so that the maximum number of people can be vaccinated within a short span.

The district health officials were also asked to increase the RT-PCR tests.

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) and various other civic bodies have been directed to increase the number of CVCs. It may be mentioned here that KMC has already increased the number of testing centers in various boroughs.

Meanwhile, the State Health department issued a notification on Thursday saying that vaccination will be done at all CVCs run by both the government and private establishments on all days of the current month including gazetted holidays.

The vaccination centers will also remain operational on all Sundays.

The main objective is to bring the maximum number of people under the coverage of vaccination.

Earlier on the day, the Centre had sent directives to all the states including Bengal to make necessary arrangements so that vaccination can be performed on all days of the current month.

The main purpose of the move is "to optimally utilise all CVCs across the public and private sectors to ensure rapid increase in the pace and coverage of vaccination," an official said.

It may be mentioned here that vaccination for all the elderly citizens, health and front line workers still continues.

The State has already crossed 52 lakh vaccination marks and also touched 3 lakh daily figures on a number of occasions.