kolkata: Despite the challenges posed by the inadequate supply of Covid vaccine by the Centre, the state Health department has successfully completed both the doses on over 91 lakh people which is the second highest after Maharashtra.
State health department has been able to utilize each vial without any wastage. Out of the total 91 lakh fully vaccinated people around 13 lakh are from Kolkata. Despite the slowdown in the second dose vaccination in August, the state managed to completely vaccinate the maximum number of people only next to Maharashtra. It has also surpassed Gujarat which had arguably received a huge number of doses from the Centre. Ruling Trinamool Congress often alleged that the BJP ruled states were favoured and more number of vaccines were given to them.
Health department has already prioritized the administration of a second dose of Covishield as around 4.60 lakh people in Bengal are awaiting their second dose. In Kolkata, more than 1 lakh people are yet to receive their second dose of Covishield. Bengal has so far administered around 2.30 crore first dose. Health department targets to perform over 5 lakh daily vaccination but fails to do so due to inadequate supply of vaccine.
"We now have to preserve a huge amount of doses for those seeking the second doses otherwise the number will keep mounting. People have to take their second dose within the stipulated time," a health official said.
The trend of administering more second doses than the first was first initiated in Bengal in April and it continued till the middle of May. The system was reversed and the first dose was administered on a larger scale from around May 15. Now the health department has again prioritized the second dose to clear the backlog. Bengal has touched 4 lakh daily vaccination mark three times so far.
Incidentally, Bengal has so far cumulatively administered 3,23,90,378 doses so far till Monday out of which 2,83,340 doses were applied in the past 24 hours. On Sunday, around 64,000 doses were administered across the state. In the special category vaccine group aged between 18-45, around 74,07,738 doses have been administered so far.
Meanwhile, around 1 lakh doses of Covishield arrived in the state on Monday. Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will be offering Covishield from its urban primary health centres and mega centres on Tuesday with some stock still in hand. However, there are slim chances of continuing with the vaccine shots on Wednesday.
"I have heard that Covishield will be coming on August 11. So, we are hopeful of resuming Covishield vaccination from Thursday,"Frihad Hakim, chairman of Board of Administrators. KMC said. KMC could offer 25000 doses of Covishield on Monday which is far below its capacity.
"The Central government is doing Tuglaqi kaarbar (business). We are never aware of the supply of vaccine in advance due to lack of any vaccine policy of the Centre. The Central government should make a plan based on the population and then distribute the vaccine doses," he added.