ASHA workers to identify people who missed second jab in districts

KOLKATA: State government is going to deploy ASHA workers in all the districts to conduct a survey in order to identify the people who are yet to get the second dose of Covid vaccine even after the stipulated time of the jab got over.

The ASHA workers will visit the households and collect data whether anybody is reluctant to take the second jab.

The step has been taken after the state Health department has found that many people are yet to complete double dose vaccination even after their due dates passed by.

The matter comes to light at a time when the Health department has over 1.20lakh doses in hands.

Chief secretary H K Dwivedi on Friday held a virtual meeting with the Health department officials and Chief Medical Officers of Health (CMoHs) in various districts instructing them to ensure that double dose vaccination is done on those who are still left out. Many people from the districts are yet to complete their vaccination.

State government is going to prepare a report as to why some people are yet to complete a second jab even after the due dates. The survey aims to find out why many people have not received the jab despite having adequate stock of doses.

Meanwhile, the health experts in the city have pointed out that due to large scale vaccination and herd immunity among a section of people the Covid curve remained below 900 even after various Puja celebrations. "As over 90 per cent of people above the age of 16 have received the first dose and over 30 per cent of the population have undertaken double doses, the Covid curve remained under control in the state," said Dr Gopeswar Mukherjee, a senior pathologist in the city. On Friday, 4,10,940 doses were administered in the state and cumulatively 8,67,14,685 doses were administered so far. Health department has therefore decided to allot over 75 percent of doses of vaccine for the rural areas to make up for the recent low rate of vaccination in the rural parts.

The health officials had already laid stress on the vaccination in rural areas and the number of vaccination centres has been increased.