Over 6 crore doses cumulatively administered
KOLKATA: Bengal has cumulatively administered the Covid vaccine on more than 6 crore people so far. The rate of infection has also gone down slightly in the state in the past few days. The Health department managed to conduct the vaccination drive despite the challenges posed by the back-to-back low pressures.
Around 4.25 crore people have received the first dose while at least 1.74 crore have received both doses. The Health department has been facing difficulties to run the Covid vaccination drive as per its potential in some of the rural areas due to incessant rains and water-logging situations in the past couple of days.
As a result, the daily vaccination was slightly affected in some parts of the far-off areas due to inclement weather. The Health department has therefore decided to allot over 75 per cent of doses of vaccine to the rural areas to make up for the recent low rate of vaccination in rural parts. Around 25 per cent of available doses would be supplied to the rural areas. The Health officials had already laid stress on the vaccination in rural areas and the number of vaccination centres has been increased.
According to data, around 45 per cent people in the rural areas have received the first dose whereas in the urban areas more than 90 per cent have been given the first dose of Covid vaccine.
The state government had also issued necessary instructions to all the district administrations, urging them to accelerate the pace of vaccination in the rural areas. Around 30 lakh doses are still available with the Health department. It has already touched 13 lakh daily vaccinations. The department administered over 10 lakh daily doses four times in the past month.
A senior Health official said vaccination drives had been hit in eight districts due to heavy rainfall. Administration of daily doses will increase this week. The number slightly dropped towards the end of last week.
In some areas, waterlogging issues caused serious inconveniences to the people in the vaccination centres. Last Sunday, the state had administered only 81,889 doses, which is much lower than the usual figure.
