Bengal crosses 3 crore Covid vaccination mark

KOLKATA: Bengal reached 3 crore vaccinations on Monday, a step that will play a significant role in restricting mortality and severe disease when the third Covid wave strikes the state, felt experts. As per the 2021 electoral roll data, the state population of those aged above 18 years, who are now eligible for vaccination, is 7.3 crore which means 41% has been inoculated so far. This includes a large vulnerable section who will be protected, experts said. But the state should now set a steep target of vaccinating another1 crore in August so that more than 50% of the eligible population gets protection, they suggested.
On Monday, 2,854 sites across the state administered more than 4 lakh jabs. Till reports came in last, close to 4.3 lakh doses were administered.

“This is one of the best shows as number of daily doses had touched 4-lakh mark only on four or five occasions earlier,” said an official.
While Bengal took 120 days to administer the first one crore doses, the second crore was administered within 39 days on June 23. The third crore was achieved in another 40 days.
State health officials said there had been an acute shortage of supply, especially of Covaxin vials between the second and third weeks of July forcing many Covaxin administering CVCs to shut down for three to four days. They said the 3 croremark would have been reached earlier but for the scanty supply.
On Monday, the state had about 27 lakh vaccine doses for inoculating recipients in government CVCs alone.
“We are expecting an allocation of 73 lakh-plus doses for August. If we keep getting the consignments, we, along with private CVCs should be able to administer 3 lakh-plus doses daily,” said a health department official.
“If the Centre revises the 75%:25% supply to government and private CVCs and increases the government share of the supply, we can escalate our drive,” said the official.
“Once we inoculate 4 crore, it will be ensured that even if the number of affected is high, most will have a mild disease and mortality will be very low. The more we vaccinate, the faster we will get close to achieving this,” said Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education & Research (IPGMER) professor Diptendra Sarkar.
Citing the example of Kerala, Sarkar pointed out that the third wave has already arrived in some parts of the country. “Number of daily fresh cases has touched 20,000 in Kerala, but deaths have been restricted to 40-50. This has been made possible by the fact that Kerala has vaccinated 58% of its population. Our target should be to emulate this,” said Sarkar.
The state will reap the benefit of vaccinations during the third wave, hoped Peerless Hospital microbiologist Bhaskar Narayan Chaudhuri. “Number of affected could be high but most should have mild infection and won’t require hospitalization. There is a threat of the Delta variant but for the vaccinated population and those who have had Covid, it should not be fatal or even severe,” said Chaudhuri. He, however, warned that those who got the vaccine 4-6 months ago should be careful.
Delta originated in India so it’s not new and won’t be a major threat, observed Sarkar. “We may have a large number of mildly infected patients who can be treated at home. Once this happens, Covid will be reduced to common cold,” said Sarkar.
Health department said demand in government sectors is much higher than supply.