KOLKATA: Alleging that the Centre was depriving Bengal of its required share of vaccines in favour of BJP-governed states, chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to “issue necessary instructions” in order to increase the supply to the state ahead of the third wave.
The supply was so irregular that the state was unable to vaccinate people on some days, Banerjee wrote. Bengal had inoculated 2.5 crore people and needed another 11.5 crore doses to vaccinate 14 crore people in the state.
Banerjee told the press that she had “no qualms” about BJP-governed states, such as UP, getting more vaccines, “but why should Bengal be deprived? Only because they lost the polls in Bengal?”
The CM wrote that Bengal had been allocated 73 lakh doses of vaccine for July, according to information received from the ministry of health. “But unfortunately, only 25 lakh doses have been received till date in the current month.”
She told reporters that Bengal had a “high record of negative wastage” (recently reported by TOI), adding that the state government “intends to inoculate all women who have children up to 12 years old ahead of the third wave. Even if the Centre provides 1.5 crore to 2 crore doses every month, we will take around six months to vaccinate everyone.”
She said she “was not sure” whether she would get a reply to the letter. “I never get one. But it is my responsibility to bring the facts before the Prime Minister.”
The letter addressed fears of inadequate vaccination, given the current rate of supply, in some detail. “We are administering around 3 lakh doses of vaccine every day in our state, and it is becoming very difficult to maintain even this level due to irregular supply,” the CM wrote, adding, “We have the capacity to vaccinate more than 10 lakh people every day, provided sufficient quantities of vaccine are made available. As per our assessment, the state needs around 11.5 crore more doses of Covid-19 vaccine to cover everyone in the eligible categories and, going by the current level of supply, it may take a longer time before everyone is covered.”
“We are not manufacturing vaccines,” Banerjee told reporters. “We must completely depend on the Centre. Private hospitals are also not getting adequate supplies,” she added.
Banerjee said Covid cases in Bengal had significantly dropped from the peak. “The positivity rate, which was as high as 33% during the eighth phase of the polls, is now 1.5%. We have a 98% discharge rate. Among the 2.5 crore people vaccinated, we have vaccinated 51 lakh people who are super-spreaders. They (the Centre) had announced a Rs 30,000-crore budgetary allocation for vaccines. They have PM-Cares; we need 14 crore vaccines, but we are not getting enough,” she said.
