After 18 lakh in May, state to buy 22 lakh vaccine doses in June: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee

KOLKATA: CM Mamata Banerjee on Monday said that Bengal will procure 22 lakh doses of vaccine in June from the state’s own resources.
“We have, on our own, procured 18 lakh doses in May. We have already spent around Rs 114 crore to procure vaccines,” the CM said. The state government had earlier said it had set aside a Rs 100 crore fund to purchase vaccines.
Banerjee added: “We have identified priority groups who mingle with people more owing to the nature of their work. We have been able to vaccinate 9 lakh such people.” The CM said Bengal has already vaccinated 1.4 crore people and 1.1 crore among them have received their first doses. The rest have received both their doses.
The CM, who chaired a high-level meeting in Nabanna, also said that the positivity rate has come down to around 18%-19% from a high of 33% in late April. “In the first wave, the highest was around 17.4%,” the CM said. “In the second wave, the discharge rate had initially dropped to around 84%. But now it is around 91%, which is also reflected in the decline in the number of active Covid cases,” the CM said.
The CM also said that the average Covid fatality rate in the second wave is lower than first wave, which was 1.6%. The CM on Monday released the West Bengal Oxygen Management Implementation System. “This will allow us to understand and deal with this important requirement in the Covid battle,” she said.