2nd day: State gives over 1.76L doses in age group of 15-18 yrs

Kolkata: Bengal has administered around 8,48,790 Covid doses on Tuesday and the total cumulative doses applied so far in the state has gone up to 10,67,76,039. Around 6.51 crore first doses have been administered so far in the state while around 4.16 crore people received double doses till Tuesday.

Around 1,76,197 doses have been administered on the youths in the age group 15-18 years on the second day of their immunization drive. The State Health department has already instructed all the districts to increase the daily vaccinations.

The state government is now increasing the number of vaccinations for the age bracket 15-18. Bengal had carried out vaccinations on 1,02,837 youths in the age group 15-18 on the first day of the vaccination drive on Monday. Bengal has so far carried out double dose vaccination on around 4,16,41,496 people in the state while around 6,51,34,543 first doses have been administered on people so far till Tuesday.

State government has laid stress on Covid tests as the daily infection has started mounting. State health department issued new guidelines on Monday to all the laboratories saying that genome sequencing should only be performed on those who have returned from the foreign countries or on those who have come in contact with the foreign returnees. Genome sequencing cannot be done on all the Covid positive patients.

State health department has directed all the Chief Medical Officer of health in the districts and also the civic bodies to increase daily Covid tests so that the cumulative figure of Bengal crosses 55,000 marks on daily basis. The state currently conducts around 40,000 daily Covid tests across Bengal. The health officials are not satisfied with the number and therefore asked all the districts to enhance the testing. No Omicron positive cases have been found in the state on Tuesday.

Six foreign returnees tested positive for Covid at Calcutta airport on Monday.