The Bengal health department has sent a requisition to the Centre for one crore doses of the Covid-19 vaccine as an initial consignment in a bid to meet its target to vaccinate around 5.4 crore people with the booster dose in 75 days, the period for which the Centre has announced free booster jabs starting July 15.
Sources said that the requisition was sent at a time when the state had an existing stock of around 12 lakh doses, which can meet the demand for around three days.
“We are administering around 4 lakh doses a day now and the stock is not sufficient for four days. So, we have sent a requisition of one crore doses immediately to continue vaccination at this speed,” a senior health official in Calcutta said.
Bengal on Tuesday till 7.30pm vaccinated 4,68,966 people. Of them, 4,25,678 received their third jab or the booster dose.
Around two weeks ago, the health department had sent around 10 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccines to Bihar as those batches were nearly to expire.
“It was not that all those vaccines would expire within a few days but those were surplus for our state as free booster doses back then were restricted to those above the age of 60 years and frontline workers. How could we have anticipated that the Centre will announce the booster doses for all and for free so soon?” asked the official.
Last Saturday, after the Centre’s announcement, chief secretary H.K. Dwivedi held a meeting with senior health officials, district magistrates and senior health officials, and directed them to set up more vaccination centres across Bengal to administer 5.42 crore persons with the booster dose within 75 days.
Since last Saturday, Bengal has reported an average 3,00,000-plus jabs a day. On Monday, 3,69,911 booster doses were administered across the state.
Sources in the health department said that the requisition was sent to the Centre on Monday.
The Centre, meanwhile, asked Assam to send around 15 lakh doses of the vaccine to Bengal for the time being.
Bengal received around five lakh doses from Assam on Monday night.
“Another consignment of more than 10 lakh vaccines from Assam will reach us shortly,” said a source.
The state is awaiting supply of vaccines in bulk directly from the manufacturing units.
“We are regularly in touch with Delhi and are requesting them to send more vaccines to us. There is a huge demand in other states too after the Union government announced the booster doses for free,” said an official.
2,243 Covid cases, six deaths
Our Correspondent: Bengal on Tuesday reported 2,243 Covid-19 infections, 2,851 recoveries and six deaths.
The state has at present 28,969 active patients — 28,255 in home isolation and 714 at hospitals.
According to a government bulletin, the state’s recovery rate was 97.58 per cent and the mortality rate 1.03 per cent on Tuesday. The positivity rate was 15.37 per cent when 14,590 samples were tested.
Since the pandemic broke out in 2020, the state has recorded 20,74,550 cases, 20,24,293 recoveries and 21,288 deaths.
In the wake of the current spike in infections, there is an increase in booster doses being administered to people.
