With Durga Puja and Lakshmi Puja coming to an end, the West Bengal government is now focusing on increasing the vaccination against COVID-19Be aware that cases may increase. The government aims to expedite the vaccination process and ensure that all persons above 18 years of age in the state are given their first dose by the end of the year.
State Chief Secretary Harikrishna Dwivedi issued instructions in this regard to every district administration and district health officers on Thursday.
During Durga Puja, the daily vaccination count dropped from over one million per day to around 7,000. After Dussehra, the number rose to 1 million for a day on 18 October, but declined again since then.
Health Services Director Ajay Chakraborty said, “The puja is over and we have to go back to our work now. This time the Covid situation may be more challenging to control as people did not behave responsibly enough… which was expected amid this pandemic situation. May be we need to struggle more this time as after this festival the mix of rural and urban is an added threat. However, we are ready to accommodate the evolving situation and our doctors and nurses are ready to sacrifice their comfort and serve humanity.”
The number of daily vaccinations increased significantly on Friday when it crossed the 12 lakh mark, a day after the Chief Secretary directed to go ahead with vaccination.
A total of 12,29,565 people were vaccinated, of which 8,37,379 people received their first dose of vaccine. The state also crossed the milestone of seven crore doses. As of Saturday, 7,05,62,259 vaccinations have been done, of which 5,12,44,425 have received both their shots.
The state administration aims to achieve the first dose of over 70 million vaccine takers within this year.
A senior health department official said, “There has been a spurt in vaccination since September. Even in the event of floods, our ‘ASHA’ workers continued the door-to-door vaccination process. Now, after the rainy season is over, we are hoping that the pace of vaccination will pick up and we will easily achieve the number that the state government expects to reach within this year.”
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