Amid an increase in Covid-19 cases in China and other countries, the West Bengal government plans to ramp up the state’s vaccination campaign. The state has requested more than 15 lakh doses from the federal government.
“We have no stock left for Covishield vaccine for which a requisition to the Centre has already been made. A letter has already been sent to the Union Health Ministry. Covid-19 cases in Bengal remain low, with a daily count of less than ten. It is not alarming, but we are fully prepared for any future surge,” said Siddharth Niyogi, Director of Health and Services.
The Centre has been asked to send 10 lakh Covishield doses, 1 lakh Covaxin doses, and 5 lakh doses of Bharat Biotech’s nasal vaccine in the most recent requisition letter. According to sources, the state has less than 30,000 doses of Covaxin.
According to sources in private hospitals, the demand for preventative vaccinations has risen in the meantime.
“Demand for booster doses has increased in the last week. The rise in China could be one of the causes. People were reluctant to take the booster dose for a long time,” a senior administrative official at a top private hospital told.
The Centre raised concerns about low testing and vaccination rates in nine states, including Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram, and Arunachal Pradesh, about six months ago. States were encouraged to improve and accelerate Covid-19 vaccination.
So far, the state has administered 64,960,609 second doses of vaccines, while 73,041,408 first doses of vaccines have been administered. In the state, a total of 15,369,310 precautionary doses have already been administered. According to the state health department’s bulletin, 5 new Covid-19 cases were confirmed in the state on Friday, with no deaths reported.