The Bengal government on Wednesday sought around 15 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccines, especially booster doses, from the Centre to intensify its vaccination drive in the wake of a few countries, including China, witnessing a fresh surge.
Sources said the decision to escalate the vaccination drive was taken at a review meeting conducted by chief secretary H.K. Dwivedi with district magistrates and chief medical officers on Wednesday at Nabanna.
“The state is running out of vaccines and the government wants to increase the drive amid the fresh threat of Covid. There is a stock of around 1.7 lakh doses of Covaxin only. At this point, we have sent a requisition of around 15 lakh doses from the Centre,” said a senior health department official.
Among the 15 lakh doses, the state has asked for 10 lakh doses of Covishield, one lakh of Covaxin and 4 lakh of nasal vaccine iNCOVACC.
Bengal has so far vaccinated 15,369,310 people with the precautionary dose and 73,041,408 and 64,960,609 people with the first and second doses, respectively.
“However, only 27 per cent of the people in the state have been vaccinated with the precautionary dose. The government wants to increase the number of vaccinated people as it is the only way to prevent a further wave of the pandemic,” said a health official.
Sources said the urge among people to get a jab dropped significantly after Covid cases showed a dip from mid-2022.
Bengal earlier sent vaccines in stock to Bihar as those were nearing expiry dates.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Dwivedi asked district magistrates to take multiple steps amid the threat of a fresh wave. The state government will start surveillance on patients with SARI (severe acute respiratory infection) and ILI (influenza-like illness) across Bengal. Such surveillance was done during the first and second waves of the pandemic.
“All hospitals have been asked to conduct mandatory Covid tests on all SARI and ILI patients when they visit healthcare facilities. Hospitals have been asked to increase the number of Covid tests. However, primarily the directive is to test all patients who report with symptoms,” said a health official who attended Wednesday’s meeting at Nabanna.
All testing facilities will be reactivated at hospitals and health centres to track Covid cases. Health officials were told to track patients and areas from where they come to understand Covid trends.
Covid numbers
Bengal on Wednesday reported nine new Covid-19 infections, four recoveries and no death. Currently, Bengal has 58 active cases, including 12 in hospitals. Recovery rate was 98.98 per cent and mortality rate 1.02 per cent. Case positivity rate stood at 0.19 per cent on Wednesday when 4,652 samples were tested.
