Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to ensure that Bengal gets Covid-19 vaccines as required because erratic vial supply has affected the ongoing vaccination programme amid the alarming spurt in infections.
For the first time in the pandemic, the state’s daily reported infections crossed 8,000 on Sunday.
“Unfortunately for us, the supply of vaccines from the GOI side has been scarce and erratic, which has been negatively affecting our vaccination programmes... We request your urgent intervention to ensure that the state gets its requirement of vaccine doses fulfilled at the earliest,” the chief minister wrote.
The chief minister wrote in her letter that the state needs to administer vaccines to 2.7 crore people, who are eligible for vaccination, and that’s why the state needs 5.4 crore doses of vaccines.
Sources said that the state has already administered vaccines to nearly 90 lakh people, of which 20 lakh people have received both the doses.
“But the figure could have been much more if the supply of vaccines was regular. We have set up an infrastructure where we can give vaccines to 5 lakh people daily. But we are being forced to administer 2.5 lakh to 3 lakh vaccines daily due to scarcity of vaccines,” said a source in the health department.
The chief minister also wrote that the vaccination drive has to be carried out aggressively in the Calcutta Metropolitan area due to its demography and high population density.
Sources said that keeping this in mind, the state government had decided to launch a vaccination drive in all 144 wards of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation from April 16.
“We have set a target of giving vaccines to 35,000 to 40,000 people every day in the CMC area during a period of 7-8 days. But to achieve the target, we need a steady supply of vaccines. Right now, we are getting 8-9 lakh doses every week, which needs to increase immediately," said another official.
The chief minister said in her letter that Covid-19 cases in Bengal started to increase sharply as large numbers of outsiders have come here for election campaign and other purposes “at the behest of some political parties".
She reminded in her letter that the state was not allowed to buy vaccines on its own to administer the doses to all eligible people in the state. "The chief minister knows no state was allowed to buy vaccines on its own... But she wrote this to make it clear that vaccine supply could have been managed more efficiently (had the state been allowed to buy vaccines),” said a source.
The chief minister also wrote that the state was facing shortage in the supply of essential medicines to treat Covid-19 patients.
“Second, the supply of essential medicines like Remedesivir and Tocilizumab (Actemra) is extremely scare and uncertain today, which has been a matter of grave concern for doctors here. We need around 6,000 vials of Remedesivir and 1,000 vials of Tocilizumab daily. However, at present only 1,000 vials of Remedesivir is available daily and no fresh supply of Tocilizumab is coming,” the chief minister wrote.
“It may kindly be seen that the relevant authorities step up their efforts to ensure steady supply of these most essential medicines as soon as possible,” she wrote.
The chief minister also pointed out that supply of oxygen, essential for the treatment of critical Covid-19 patients, is steady so far, but that it has to be ensured that is maintained.
Sources in the health department said the chief minister was worried about the situation as the daily positive cases in Bengal has crossed 8,000, much higher than what the state had recorded during the peak of the first wave last October. “Last October, we were getting 4,000-odd cases daily. This time, the daily figure has crossed 8,000. The chief minister has reasons to be worried as the situation is more critical this time,” said a senior health department official.
