KOLKATA: Prakash Chandra Santra, a retired teacher and a senior citizen, was surprised to find the registration counter at a Kolkata Municipal Corporation vaccination clinic in Tollygunge open at 8.45am. Santra stood in a queue behind eight other recipients and walked out of the clinic by 10am.
A change in rule necessitated the KMC clinics to start vaccination from 8.30am from Thursday onwards. According to a KMC health department official, those who came early at the clinics or mega centres had hassle-free experience.
A KMC health department official said taking advantage of an additional 90 minutes, the vaccination clinics could cater to more recipients across the city. Apart from opening early, the clinics on Thursday had an extra 100 dose allocation from the headquarters that enabled them to cater to more recipients who had queued up from early morning.
“Today we didn’t refuse a single recipient who had turned up at our clinic. On the contrary, we had to send back five vials to our borough office after administering 250 doses as there were no recipients,” said a KMC official posted at Borough XI.
However, longer queues were witnessed in areas such as Beliaghata, Maniktala, Burrabazar, Bhowanipore, Hazra, Behala and Baghajatin-Jadavpur.
“Today we had a mixed response from the recipients across the city. While some centres ended up exhausting the vaccine allocation, others sent back a small portion of the allocated vials,” said a KMC health department official.
