The civic bodies in Calcutta and Bidhannagar are increasing the number of Covid-19 vaccination centres to speed up immunisation against the disease.
The Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) will start Covid-19 vaccination in 17 more ward health clinics from Thursday, taking the total number of vaccination sites to 61.
The Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) opened six new vaccination sites on Wednesday. The BMC is running 12 vaccination sites.
The increase in the number of sites comes at a time when Covid-19 cases have started rising again and public health officials said faster vaccination was a key to preventing another surge.
The bulletin published by the state health department on Wednesday evening stated that 303 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours and 96 of them were from Calcutta. “The focus will be on people who are 60 and above and those above 45 with comorbidities. Our target is to inoculate 100 such people every day at each clinic. That apart, we will carry on inoculating healthcare and frontline workers,” a CMC official said.
“Covid-19 vaccination was being run from 51 clinics till Wednesday. From Thursday we will conduct vaccination in 68 ward health clinics,” said the CMC official.
The CMC has 144 clinics in the city, one in each ward. The official could not say whether the CMC would open vaccination sites in all 144 clinics.
The 17 civic clinics where Covid vaccination will start on Thursday are located in the wards 4, 8, 17, 24, 28, 36, 51, 64, 69, 78, 92, 112, 102, 119, 129, 141 and 143.
The vaccination sites of the BMC are spread across Salt Lake, Baguiati, Narayanpur and Rajarhat. “We want to maximise our outreach and are trying to ensure that more people get vaccinated," said a BMC official.
The centres in the BMC area that are already functional include Matrisadan Hospital in Salt Lake’s EE Block, Deshbandhu Nagar Hospital in Rajarhat, Vidyasagar Matrisadan in Rajarhat and primary health centres in Jhautala and Ashwininagar.
Pranay Kumar Ray, a member of the board of administrators of the BMC who is in charge of the civic health department, said they had increased the number of sites to 12 following a spurt in the number of cases.
“Recipients need not be from the same ward as where a vaccination clinic is located. Anyone can come and get vaccinated,” said an official.
“Someone who has not registered on the Co-Win portal can walk in, too, for the jab. We will register them at the spot and administer them doses.”
The identity cards that are required to register include Aadhaar, PAN, passport, driving license, electoral photo identity card and pension document with photograph. Each recipient must carry a mobile phone because a one time password (OTP), which will be required for registration, will be sent to the number.
Residents of Salt Lake and adjoining areas said they did not know where the vaccines were being administered as the civic body had not undertaken any drive to spread the information.
"The news that the corporation has opened vaccination clinics has only spread by word of mouth,” said Shatarupa Ghoshal, 64, a resident of BD Block.