KOLKATA: With a steady supply of vaccines in the past few weeks, the state health department has accelerated its inoculation drive by expanding the vaccine coverage. By Monday, 55% plus of the eligible population in Bengal had got at least the one dose of the vaccine. Health officials said if the supply continues, the state can scale up its drive further.
According to health department sources, the state government has received 1 crore plus doses in August, of which 42 lakh plus doses arrived in the past one week. In fact, the 16.7 lakh Covishield doses the state got on Sunday has been the largest consignment to arrive in a day since the inception of the immunisation drive. On Monday, too, the state got another shipment of 6.3 lakh Covishield doses.
The uninterrupted supply has pushed up the vaccination coverage with the state administering close to 5 lakh doses regularly for about a week. In last week, 5-lakh plus doses were administered on two days.
“We are ready to vaccinate as much as we can get. For this, there should be regular and assured supply. This will enable us to plan ahead for 5-6 lakh doses per day. If supply goes up further, we can expand our drive accordingly,” said director of health services Ajay Chakraborty.
Around 5.6 lakh jabs were administered on August 27, making it the highest number of shots offered in a day in Bengal. The state also crossed another milestone of crossing 1 crore second dose mark on that day.
A total of 2,98.01,167 doses were administered in Bengal as on August 1, among which 59 lakh plus doses were administered to recipients between 18-44 age group. On Monday, this number shot up to around 4 crore (1.1 crore plus second dose) and around 1.7 crore (18-44 age group) .
Bengal got a share of little over 85 lakh doses in July. While the 1 crore jabs came to the state’s kitty in August, the vaccine supply is likely to go up in September with the Union health ministry officials assuring about 1.3 crore doses for the coming month.
“We can go for specific drives and scale up the vaccination operation. We can administer about 10 lakh doses with the existing facilities and infrastructure. But for this, we need to have that kind of supply,” said a health department official. And with talks of school re-reopening post Durga Puja, the health department has also decided to ensure full vaccine coverage to teachers.
“Majority of teachers have got the vaccine shot. But to ensure covering each teacher before school reopens, district inspectors of schools have been asked to collect and compile data of teachers who have not been vaccinated,” said state family welfare officer Ashim Das Malakar.
With close to 70% of Kolkata’s eligible population being covered with at least one dose, the health department now wants to give due weightage to other districts. Unlike the first wave, when many districts remained unaffected or only partly affected, the second wave penetrated deep into rural Bengal. Health experts said the districts too need the vaccine protection equally.
