State administers over 4 cr 2nd doses so far; 2 more travellers test 'O' positive, 4,512 new cases

Kolkata: Even as Bengal achieved a milestone of administering over 4 crore second doses on Saturday, the state logged two more Omicron cases after travellers were found Omicron positive from Petrapole border, taking the tally of caseload of the new variant to 18.

Health department has administered 99,807 vaccine doses on Saturday taking the total doses administered so far to 10,50,00,688. Around 6,46,47,588 first doses have been administered so far while 4,03,53,100 people received both doses.

Mayor Firhad Hakim said on Saturday that vaccination for the age group of 15 to 18 will begin in Kolkata from Monday. "This particular age group, majority of which will be students, will be administered Covaxin," Hakim said. Meanwhile, the State government is ready to start vaccination of nearly 50 lakh eligible children in the age group 15-18. It has already prepared data in this regard. The children will be given Covaxin doses. Around 1.1 crore senior citizens, 5 lakh front line workers and around 7 lakh health workers will get the third dose from January 10. Recipients will be given the same vaccinne what they had received earlier.

A list has been prepared of the senior citizens with comorbidities who are eligible to get the booster Covid dose. BCCI President, Sourav Ganguly and five other foreign travellers were found positive for Delta variant.

Bengal has been witnessing a whopping spike in daily Covid cases for the last four days with 4,512 fresh cases being reported on Saturday. Active Covid cases in the state jumped by 2,590 on Saturday which has become a concern for the health officials. The total number of active cases on Saturday stood at 13,300. Kolkata has seen a huge rise in daily cases by 2,398 on Saturday. The total number of the infected cases in the city stood at 3,40,165 out of which 3,28,402 patients have been released from the hospitals so far.