The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has extended the duration of Covid vaccination at its centres so more doses can be administered without letting queues get any longer.
Starting Thursday, the civic body’s vaccine centres are administering Covid shots from 9am to 4pm. Till Tuesday, the vaccination started around 11am or 11.30am and continued till 4pm.
On Wednesdays, the vaccination started around 12.30pm, only after routine immunisation of children was completed. All primary health centres of the KMC perform routine immunisation of children under the universal immunisation programme every Wednesday.
“From Thursday, we are administering the doses from 9am. It is continuing till 4pm,” said a KMC doctor.
The vaccination hours have been extended following a boost in supply, said an official of the KMC. Most of the civic primary health centres, which are doubling as Covid vaccination centres, received 300 doses on Thursday.
A few others received even a greater number of doses. About 10 days back, the centres used to receive between 150 and 200 doses a day.
Owing to a steady supply, Kolkata’s daily vaccination numbers have stayed in the range of 50,000 to 60,000 over the past week.
Earlier, the numbers stayed below 50,000 on most days.
On Thursday, over 65,000 doses were administered from government and private vaccination centres in the city.
A KMC official said over 80 per cent of the doses administered in Calcutta were given from civic centres.
A KMC official said if the vaccination had to be ramped up further, extending the duration was required.
“Since we are receiving more doses every day now, it is necessary to extend the hours. Otherwise, we will not be able to administer all doses we get in a day,” said one of the KMC doctors supervising vaccination in the city.
The Centre has promised to send 1.33 crore Covid vaccine doses to the Bengal government in September. In August, too, the state had received a little over 1 crore doses.
The supply was way higher than what the state had got in June and July. With the rise in supply, the state health department is targeting to ramp up daily vaccination numbers.
The KMC receives its supply from the health department.
The civic body’s vaccination centres are giving priority to second-dose recipients.
“First-dose recipients are given a time slot after they join the queue for the jab. Second-dose recipients do not need to book any time slot,” said a KMC doctor.