In April, a couple in their 50s had to wait for over 10 hours outside a clinic run by the Calcutta Municipal Corporation in Kasba to get vaccinated.
On Monday, a woman in her 50s waited for three hours to get vaccinated. The 57-year-old resident of Behala’s Fakirpara, who took her first dose at Sarat Sadan in Behala, said: “My husband had gone to the centre around 10.30am. He got a token. We live close to the centre. He told me to go to the centre around 1pm. I got vaccinated at 1.15pm.”
Tamal Saha, the owner of a garment store on Rashbehari Avenue, took the jab at a community centre in Triangular Park. An acquaintance of Saha had queued up since 7am and Saha reached the centre around 9.30am.
“The serial number of my token was 18,” Saha, 33, said. He was vaccinated by 10.30am.
The shorter queues are a result of the civic body’s decision to allot separate windows for various groups of people.
The first four hours of the day — 9am to 1pm — have been reserved for people above 60, who can walk in and get vaccinated. This window is for those who cannot book slots through the CoWin portal or the WhatsApp chatbot opened by the CMC.
From 1pm to 4pm, vaccines are being administered to those who have booked their slots through the WhatsApp chatbot. Officials of the civic body who have been managing Covid vaccination for long said the three-hour wait was far less than the length of time people had to spend outside vaccination centres earlier to get the jab.
Officials said the queues that were still forming were because some people were fearing they might not get a chance to get vaccinated later.
“The queues are mostly being seen during the 9am-1pm window. Post-1pm queues are shorter as only those who have booked slots are eligible to get the jab then,” said an official.
Civic officials said they were not turning away anyone from priority groups, such as hawkers, retailers and transport workers.
Long queues are, however, still a daily feature at the vaccination centres in the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation area and in Dum Dum.
Despite having 41 ward offices, six borough offices and several primary health centres, the civic body is administering shots from Matri Sadan Hospital in Salt Lake and Narayanpur Matri Sadan hospital in Rajarhat.
As a result, long queues for vaccination are seen in front of the two hospitals daily.
“The vaccine supply has been erratic. We cannot say when we will be able to start giving the first dose to people from eligible age groups,” said a senior official of the Bidhannagar civic body.
On Monday, a vaccine drive was conducted for hawkers and shopkeepers of Rajarhat, Atghara, Kaikhali, Baguiati and other areas at Atghara Free Primary School. More than 150 men and women were administered the shot, an official of the civic body said.
In areas under South Dum Dum and Dum Dum municipalities, shots are being administered from at least six primary health centres. The centres are struggling with long queues, which civic officials are attributing to lack of enough doses. “Every day, we are witnessing huge queues and we are having to turn away many people because we are running out of shots,” said an official of South Dum Dum Municipality.