The Covid vaccination centres of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) have been asked to plan their daily schedule in a way that vaccine vials are not returned unused.
The KMC health department conveyed the decision to officials in charge of the civic body’s vaccination centres across the city. The officials have been asked to intensify door-to-door visits to identify unvaccinated and partially vaccinated people and motivate them to take the jabs at the civic centres at the earliest.
The civic centres are getting far more vaccine doses than what they used to get a month ago. “The daily allocation to each centre has been increased to 250 from 150 a month ago,” an official in the KMC health department said.
The supply has been stepped up because the Centre has promised to send 1.33 crore doses to the state health department in September. The KMC gets its vaccines from the state health department.
“Since the supply is better now, we have to ensure that vials are not returned unused. A large number of people, especially those who are not reluctant to get vaccinated, have taken at least one dose. We have to actively search for those who have inhibitions in getting vaccinated and motivate them to take the jabs,” said a KMC doctor.
The KMC is focussing on slums and low-income neighbourhoods for door-to-door visits. Civic officials feel most people living in these neighbourhoods prefer to take vaccines where they are administered for free. Residents of affluent neighbourhoods, on the other hand, prefer to take the jabs at private hospitals.