The Calcutta Municipal Corporation has decided to open five more Covid-19 vaccination sites on Monday to try and speed up inoculation of frontline and health-care workers, officials said on Sunday.

The state health department has set February 25 as the last date for all health-care workers to get the first dose of a Covid vaccine.

With the opening of five more sites, the number of Covid vaccination centres run by the CMC will go up to 80.

Metro reported on Saturday that chief secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay had asked officials of the health department to increase the number of vaccination sites so more health-care and frontline workers could be given the jabs daily. Only health-care and frontline workers are eligible for Covid jabs in the ongoing Phase I of the vaccination campaign.

One of the five new sites will be set up at the civic headquarters on SN Banerjee Road and another in the CMC clinic of ward 72 in Bhowanipore.

CMC sources said a large number of employees at the civic headquarters need to be vaccinated.

“We held an interaction with health-care and frontline workers of borough 8 on Saturday and explained to them some basic facts about Covid vaccines. We told them that they will remain under observation for 30 minutes after taking the shot. A doctor will be present to attend to them (if they suffer from any adverse effect). We are hoping many will turn up to get the doses,” said Sandip Ranjan Bakshi, the coordinator of the borough.

Ajay Chakraborty, the state’s director of health services, said on Sunday about 75 per cent of the 6.8 lakh registered health-care workers in Bengal had received their first dose. “We are expecting that it will go up to 80 per cent by February 25.”

An official of the CMC said they were planning to open two more sites in each of the 16 boroughs in Calcutta soon. “We were running 17 sites in the 16 boroughs till Saturday. From Monday there will be 22 sites, but we want to have two sites in each borough,” said an official.

The CMC has over 3,000 health-care workers registered for Covid vaccines. Around 35,000 frontline workers of the civic body are registered for the jabs.

Sources said a large number of frontline workers are yet to be vaccinated.

The Covid-19 Vaccine Operational Guidelines of the Centre has listed the municipal workers who are eligible to receive jabs as frontline workers. They include waste collectors, sweepers, waste management plant operators, engineers, revenue and other department staff and cremation ground staff.