A boat containing Covid-19 vaccines reached remote islands of the Sunderbans on Monday where most residents are yet to be inoculated because of lack of awareness, shortage of doses and absence of Net connectivity.

Four boats have been pressed into service to vaccinate potential super-spreaders such as migrant workers in 12 Sunderban islands over the next few days, said an official of the South 24-Parganas administration.

The boats are stacked with vaccine vials and armed with Wifi connection. Internet connectivity is a must to run Covid vaccination because all recipients have to be registered on the CoWIN portal.

The drive started at Kumirmari, around 90km from the heart of Calcutta, where a boat loaded with vaccines arrived on Monday. “On an average, three out of every 100 people were vaccinated at Kumirmari today,” said a district official.

To start with, the focus is on vaccinating super-spreader categories like migrant labourers, who will soon leave home and spread across the state and the country for work. Since they move around, they are vulnerable to infection and prone to spreading the virus.

“We have started with targeted vaccination of migrant labourers. The target is to get them vaccinated before they leave home for work,” said South 24-Parganas district magistrate P. Ulganathan.

Although vaccination drives have been initiated across the district over the past few months, more emphasis has been laid on urban sectors.

Unlike cities and towns, where many people have easy access to government vaccination centres, Sunderbans residents have to travel for hours to reach their closest health centre.

Often, at the end of the journey, they learn that the day’s stock had been exhausted.

For example, for residents of Kumirmari, the nearest health centre is in Gosaba, around 4km away by boat.

An official said there were several reasons for the people in the remote islands to remain unvaccinated.

“There are island villages where people are still unaware of Covid, let alone vaccination. People who know find it difficult to reach the health centres and access vaccines,” the official said.

At present, the district administration is coordinating with gram panchayats to identify the target groups and get them enrolled on the CoWIN portal.

With four boats, the government expects to cover Kumirmari, Satjeliya, Bally, Chandipur, Kachukhali, Gosaba, Chotomollakhali, Radhanagar-Taranagar, Mousuni, Ghoramara, G-plot and K-plot islands in a few days.