32.5L fully jabbed in Kolkata with 32.4L vaccine-eligible population

KOLKATA: The number of people who have got both doses of their vaccine in Kolkata has now outstripped the city’s vaccine-eligible population.
More than 32.5 lakh people in Kolkata have got both doses of their Covid-19 vaccine. The number of people eligible for the vaccine in the city is 32.4 lakh, according to Bengal government data shared with the Centre. A more detailed break-up of Kolkata’s 18-plus population is expected when the State Election Commission releases the voter list ahead of the December 19 Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls.
Around 80.8 lakh vaccine doses have been administered in Kolkata till Saturday evening, out of which more than 48 lakh have received only their first dose and the rest both doses. The “apparent discrepancy in statistics” — vaccine recipients being more than the eligible population — can be explained by the large daily migratory population that Kolkata hosts, say officials. “Many people who come to work in the city may have taken the vaccine here instead of a health centre near home,” one official explained.
Officials say the “100% double-dose” mark is more significant than what the numbers suggest. Kolkata, because of its population density and greater mobility, has been at the peak of Bengal’s Covid curve. It has reported 3.2 lakh Covid cases and 5,193 Covid deaths; it reported its first Covid case on March 23, 2020, and its first Covid death two days later. Over 20% of Bengal’s 16 lakh Covid cases and 27% of Bengal’s Covid deaths have been reported from the state capital. But Kolkata has also had the added advantage of a robust private-sector healthcare service to complement the KMC and state-run Covid Vaccination Centres.
Officials have now set themselves the target of “rectifying” Kolkata’s vaccination gender gap. The city suffers from the sharpest male-female gap in the state when it comes to vaccination.
More than 44 lakh of Kolkata’s vaccinated population of 80 lakh-plus are men; only about 36 lakh are women. The gap is much less in Bengal; 4.2 crore males have got the jab along with 4.1 crore females. About 2.4 crore of Bengal’s eligible population (of 7 crore) have received both their vaccine doses.
The CoWin dashboard has captured several key vaccination trends over the last 30 days that suggested Kolkata was inching towards the “100% vaccination” target. Both government-run and private vaccination centres have seen the demand for the second shot rise in the recent past. The sharpest second shot-versus-first shot gap occurred on October 26; 38,097 people took their second dose that day compared to 6,388 first-dose recipients.