The Bengal health secretary on Thursday wrote to the Calcutta police commissioner and the Bengal police chief saying the “peaceful ambience” at vaccination centres “is turning tense” because of the “ignited demand for vaccination”.

The letter from Narayan Swarup Nigam says the number of recipients has been increasing by the day and a demand-supply mismatch was often leading to “untoward incidents” in the city as well as in the districts.

“Although the inclination of the large number of people to get themselves vaccinated is an encouraging development, it will take some time to reach a stage when supply can match steps with demand. However, the crowds at the vaccination centres are bulging every day and peaceful ambience is turning tense. Even untoward incidents began to be reported from Kolkata and from the districts as well,” Nigam has written.

“I solicit intervention of your good offices to pass suitable instructions to your field officers. This department is also advising KMC and DMs/CMOHs to liaison with their police counterparts in this regard.”

Metro had last Saturday reported that health officers of several boroughs of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation had sought police deployment at vaccination centres fearing unrest because shortage of doses was resulting in many people leaving without getting the jab despite queuing up for hours.

In the past 24 hours, at least four incidents of unrest were reported at vaccination centres in Calcutta, necessitating intervention by the police.

On Thursday, the Gariahat police station had to send teams to a vaccination centre at Dover Terrace and another in Ekdalia.

At both, the number of jab aspirants, many of whom had joined the queue early in the morning, has far outnumbered the number of doses, triggering discontent among those who had to leave without being vaccinated.

On Wednesday, a group of people protested outside a vaccination centre in Kudghat after a guard at the facility said he had misplaced the list of the people who had enrolled.

A section of the people who had turned up at MR Bangur Hospital on Wednesday for Covid jabs blocked Prince Anwar Shah Road after being told that the hospital had run out of doses.

“People are queuing up outside vaccination centres from as early as 4am or even before but the centres get their supply only after 9.30am or 10am. The number of people who can be vaccinated on a given day can be estimated only after that,” said an officer of the south suburban division.

Anirban Bose, a resident of Narendrapur, said it took him three attempts over as many days to get his elderly relatives vaccinated.

A health department official expressed the fear that the situation might worsen after everyone above 18 years becomes eligible for a Covid shot after May 1 across the country. In Bengal, however, chief minister Mamata Banerjee has said people above 18 will be vaccinated from May 5.

“Although vaccination for the 18-44 age group is not expected before May 5 in Bengal, many people are getting impatient and may turn up at vaccination centres from May 1. There is already tremendous pressure on the centres already,” the official said.