kolkata: Bengal on Sunday administered 1,65,245 doses across the state and the number of cumulative doses administered so far in the state reached 4,33,81,836 till Sunday. State had administered over 4 lakh doses on Saturday. On Friday it had administered over 5 lakh doses.
Health department has managed to scale up the vaccination drive in August as it received comparatively more doses the last month. Over 1 crore doses were supplied by the Centre to the state in August. In September, the state is expected to receive some more doses.
As per Health department figure, first doses have been cumulatively administered on over 3.09 crore people so far and in case of second doses cumulative figure stands at 1.22 crore so far. As many as 2,776 common vaccination centres (CVC) have been operational throughout the state. Around 3,652 AEFI cases have been reported in the state so far.
Bengal is one of few states which have managed to extract extra doses from each vial and therefore been able to do maximum utilization of doses.
The percentage of vaccinne wastage in Bengal remains at -7 which shows that state has managed to extract extra doses from each vaccinne vials due to the efficiency of the nursing staff and health workers in Bengal.
It may be mentioned here that Bengal has performed the highest number of doses in August. State had successfully conducted over 5 lakh daily vaccinations over a span of one week in a row.
Few days ago, Bengal managed to conduct 12 lakh doses in a single setting an example for other states.
Despite the challenges posed by the inadequate supply of vaccine by the Centre, Bengal has managed to administer a higher number of seconddoses to the people compared to many other states.
Meanwhile, sate government has taken various steps to ensure smooth administration of vaccinne at various centers. Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi on Tuesday held a meeting with all the DMs, Chief medical officers of health in the districts, police superintendents through video conference where all the district officials have been directed to do micro-planning so that extra rush of beneficiaries can be avoided.
It has been decided that ASHA workers will take the coupons to the doorsteps of the people where specific slots would be mentioned.
The decision has been taken to avoid gathering outside the Covid vaccination centers. People are getting coupons 1-2 days prior to the date of vaccination. Those having coupons will only be allowed to enter the centres.
Sources said district officials have been asked to form a task force to ensure a smooth vaccination drive.
Emphasis has been laid on organising vaccination camps on large ground or school buildings. Steps have been taken as there were some incidents of chaos reported from some centres.