Bengal will not be able to vaccinate all health-care workers against Covid-19 by the February 20 deadline, an official in the state health department said.

Till Thursday (February 18), the official said, around 80 per cent of the target has been achieved.

The Centre has said all health-care workers have to be given the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine by February 20. Health-care and frontline workers are being given the jabs in the ongoing first phase of Covid-19 vaccination.

Bengal has around seven lakh health-care workers.

“About 80 per cent of the health-care workers have been vaccinated. There are around 1.2 lakh who have not taken the first dose. They are being called again. We have to push back the deadline to February 25,” the health department official said.

“Most of the health-care workers who are yet to be given the first dose are reluctant to be vaccinated.”

Officials said chief secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay would hold a meeting with officials of all districts and Calcutta to discuss how to increase the pace of vaccination.

“On Thursday, the 27th day of Covid vaccination in Bengal, 32,924 persons were vaccinated, against the target of around 66,600. Which means around 49 per cent of the day’s target has been achieved,” an official said.

“We have to vaccinate more people every day. It should be double the existing rate.”

He said each site was supposed to vaccinate 100 people every day, but only about half the target is being achieved on an average.

The reluctance among a section of recipients to take the shots and lethargy among those who are administering them were the two factors responsible for the slow pace.

Metro has reported that many health-care workers are reluctant to take the shots and are being counselled by those who have been vaccinated. Lack of enough data about the efficacy of Covaxin (one of the two vaccines approved for emergency use in India, the other being Covishield) is one major reason for the reluctance.