Covid surge: Bengal to take steps to complete giving jabs to all elderly

KOLKATA: In the wake of a rising number of Covid cases in the country, the State Health department has taken up a host of new initiatives as a precautionary measure to combat if the infection curve takes an upward turn in Bengal.

Senior Health department officials feel that it is extremely important to complete Covid vaccination courses for the elderly people, who are still left out due to their inability to turn up at Covid vaccination centers (CVCs). According to state government data, there are some elderly people in the districts, who are yet to receive their second dose or booster doses mainly because of age related issues. They are not physically fit enough to go to the CVCs. Health department may ask various civic bodies and also the district administrations to make some arrangements so that the elderly people can get the jab at their doorsteps.

ASHA workers may be deployed to collect the data from every household.

According to the state health department, around 23 lakh precautionary Covid vaccination doses have been administered in the state so far. More than 7.22 crore first doses have been administered in Bengal while 6.05 crore have received double doses of Covid vaccine. Health department has come to know that some elderly people are yet to get their second doses and also precautionary doses in some districts.

The department is going to ask those districts to take some proactive steps so that those elderly people can be fully jabbed. It was learnt that Howrah Municipal Corporation has recently been urged to administer doses on the feeble elderly citizens at their doorsteps.

Incidentally, the health department has already directed various medical colleges and also the Chief Medical Officers of Health (CMoH) in the districts to increase the daily Covid tests as it had dropped in the recent past. To identify the present Covid situation in various districts and the prevalence of infection, the health department has decided to resume sentinel surveys throughout the state in a phased manner.

The first phase will be performed between April 27 and 29. The survey will be carried out in 28 health districts of Bengal and around 400 samples will be collected from every health district.

All the CMoHs in the districts have been asked to make ready a unit for Covid patients in one or two district hospitals.