A vaccine divide is coursing through Bengal as rural areas are lagging behind in inoculation while urban pockets are inching towards the goal of achieving cent percent coverage.
Health department officials said shortage of vaccine doses was prompting them to target only vulnerable sections of the population in rural areas for now.
“Our target is to vaccinate 100 per cent of the vaccinable population in urban areas because these are the most vulnerable places. At the moment, in rural areas we are targeting vulnerable groups such as vegetable vendors and hawkers,” said an official in the state health department.
“We are keeping a close watch on the districts where Covid cases are high and have asked health officials there to intensify the vaccination drive.”
The Telegraph reported on Thursday that state government data showed that 77.68 per cent of the urban population in Bengal had received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine and 35.3 per cent was fully vaccinated.
The percentages are much lower in rural areas, officials said.
At several private hospitals in Kolkata, Covid patients from districts far outnumber those from the city.
On Thursday, 10 of the 12 Covid patients at Medica Superspecialty Hospital were from districts, including Purba and Paschim Medinipur, Hooghly, Nadia and North and South 24-Parganas.
Fortis Hospital, Anandapur, had 12 patients, of whom only four were from Kolkata.
The RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences had 10 Covid patients, of whom seven were from districts. An official of the hospital said three of the seven patients had not taken a single dose of a vaccine.
Doctors say vaccinated people, even those who have taken a single dose, are less likely to need hospitalisation or develop severe Covid than the unvaccinated ones.
Bengal on Thursday reported 717 new Covid cases with Kolkata accounting for 118, the highest among all districts in the state, followed by North 24-Parganas, where 97 people tested positive.
The count has gone up in some of the districts. Paschim Medinipur had reported 21 new cases on August 22. On Thursday, it recorded 48 Covid cases.
Darjeeling had 57 new cases on August 22. On Thursday, the count stood at 65.
“One approach is uniform vaccination across the state. But that is not practical because of the limited supply of vaccines. So, we are trying to protect the vulnerable people first, which means those living in urban areas,” said Kunal Sarkar, cardiac surgeon and public health expert.
The districts, however, should not be neglected, though the positivity rate there is lower compared with that of Kolkata, Sarkar said.
“Lower seropositivity means lower herd immunity. So districts must have an aggressive vaccination programme, too, which can prevent a possible third wave,” said Sarkar.
He said some of the states were taking aggressive vaccination programmes at districts where the positivity rate was low.
Some private nursing homes in districts said the number of people turning up for vaccination had gone down sharply after the case count started falling.
“We were flooded with calls in June before we got supplies. After we received supplies, about 60 people would come daily to take the shot. Now there are barely 20 recipients daily,” said Sk Alhajuddin, owner of Sun Hospital in Burdwan and chairman of Progressive Nursing Homes and Hospitals Association.
Metro had earlier reported how smaller nursing homes in districts were not getting any supplies of Covid vaccines.