The Calcutta Municipal Corporation may have to pause administering Covishield on Tuesday because it has received a small number of doses.
The health department has given 27,000 doses of Covishield to the CMC, out of a little above 3.5 lakhs doses it received from the Centre for the entire state. CMC officials said 27,000 doses were too few for a populous city like Calcutta, where a large number of people are awaiting their second dose.
Following a meeting on Sunday, the civic body decided that Covishield would be administered to around 150-200 recipients in each of its vaccination centres, CMC officials said.
“Officials of the CMC health department will take stock of the situation at the end of the day’s vaccination and decide whether the drive would continue on Tuesday,” the official said.
“It is unlikely we will be able to administer Covishield from Tuesday. The number of doses given to us is way too little,” said Atin Ghosh, a member of the CMC’s board of administrators in charge of health.
Officials of the health department said they were expecting another consignment to reach on August 11.