Till July, Bengal got fewer shots than BJP states

Kolkata: Despite being smaller in terms of population, the number of Covid vaccine doses received by Gujarat, Rajasthan and Karnataka has outweighed the number received by Bengal so far. This not only raises serious questions on the uniformity of the distribution of doses among states by the Centre but also triggers political controversy only because two of these 3 states are BJP ruled.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's claim that the Centre has been sending more vaccines to the BJP-ruled states has once again gained momentum as the state Health department figures show that all the three states are much ahead of Bengal in terms of doses received. Interestingly, the total population of Bengal is much higher than that of Gujarat, Karnataka and Rajasthan.

According to data, Bengal has currently over 10.09 crore population but in case of Gujarat, the number stands at 7.04 crore, Rajasthan 7.95 crore and Karnataka 6.96 crore. If population becomes the determining factor for receiving the number of doses, Bengal is certainly the strongest contender over the three others.

Sources said till July 31, Bengal had received only 2.28 crore doses from the Centre whereas Gujarat had managed to get around 2.59 crore till the same date.

Rajasthan had received 2.45 crore doses and Karnataka 2.39 crore. The figure in Bengal has gone up much higher in the past 13 days like others. Till Friday, the state has cumulatively administered around 3.38 crore doses. It was learnt from sources that Bengal is supposed to receive around 73 lakh doses for August but till now only around 1/3 doses have arrived in the state.

The state on Friday once again touched 4 lakh daily vaccination figures.

This is for the fourth time that Bengal has crossed the 4-lakh mark. In the past 24 hours, around 4,26,097 doses were administered across the state. As many as 3,38,10,617 people have received doses so far.

On Thursday, around 3.5 lakh doses had been administered. In the special category vaccine group aged between 18 and 45, around 82,02,133 doses have been administered so far.

The state Health department has been able to utilise each vial without any wastage. The department has already prioritised the administration of second doses of vaccine due to short supply.