Officials at two Covid vaccination centres run by the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) are calling up potential recipients to tell them their respective time slots for inoculation to prevent crowding at the centres.

The NKDA official said the two centres were only administering shots to those already registered on the CoWin portal.

From Tuesday, the two centres will resume vaccination of people aged 60 and above, the official said.

Those who get themselves registered on CoWin have to call up the New Town helpline number--- 180010-37652 — and tell the operators their details as well as the registration number on the portal.

The NKDA will call up the potential recipients when slots become available, the official said.

The township authority has introduced the practice to ensure that the turnout at each centre is not more than the number of doses available on a given day. “That will prevent crowding at the centres,” the official said.

Public health experts have repeatedly stressed the need to avoid crowds to prevent infection. “Our vaccine drive started on April 1. After a slow start, we have been seeing a huge rush. The surge in Covid cases has led to a desperation among people to get vaccinated. So, we have decided to ensure that there is no unnecessary crowding,” said the official.

Metro has reported that people in the city and its adjoining areas have been queuing up since very early in the morning for the Covid shot.

A large number of them are returning without being inoculated despite waiting for hours because of erratic supply of vaccines.

On Monday, the vaccine centres administered shots to at least 100 hawkers in the age group of 18 to 44, whose names were earlier collected by NKDA officials. The drive to inoculate hawkers will be held on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

A drive was started on Monday at the centre at the New Town bus terminus building, behind Pride Hotel, to vaccinate people aged 70 or more who had missed their first shots. The NKDA is also planning to administer Covid-19 shots to construction workers at different sites in New Town.

“We have enlisted volunteers from different residents’ welfare associations as well as local NGOs to help us,” NKDA chairman Debashis Sen said.

Apart from that, the NKDA has also formed a “Covid-19 war room” comprising senior Hidco and NKDA officials.

The township authority has formed various cells and assigned them specific tasks including vaccination, testing and delivering free meals at homes of elderly Covid-19 patients and safe homes. “Each cell alerts others if somebody comes to know of an emergency and the persons concerned act accordingly,” the official said.