West Bengal records one of the highest COVID-19 vaccine beneficiaries
India observes National Vaccination Day every year on 16th March. But this year surely the Day holds a far deeper impact with the roll out of COVID-19 mass vaccination in India in full swing. The Pandemic that has been raging throughout the world since last one year, finally takes head on with multiple vaccines rolled out in the shortest time ever in medical history. Vaccines are the only answer to herd immunity that can bring an end to this Pandemic.
As of now, West Bengal is one of the states that is among the top states in number of people vaccinated against COVID-19. As per the state health department in January when the Astrazenca-Oxford Covishield vaccine was approved in India, West Bengal successfully vaccinated a whooping 84,505 health workers in just 6 days.
The Government of India celebrates National Vaccination Day to convey the importance of vaccination to the people of the country. In 1995, the first dose of an oral vaccine against polio was given in India. India has been observing the Pulse Polio Programme since 1995 and today India is on the list of countries where Polio has been eradicated. Will COVID-19 also follow the same steps? Only time will tell.
As of now, West Bengal is one of the states that is among the top states in number of people vaccinated against COVID-19. As per the state health department in January when the Astrazenca-Oxford Covishield vaccine was approved in India, West Bengal successfully vaccinated a whooping 84,505 health workers in just 6 days. Then they set a target to vaccinate around 11 lakh frontline workers, including police personnel and civic body officials. The list will also include people working in the offices of district magistrates.
West Bengal’s COVID-19 cases also saw a sharp drop till February – almost a drop of 5.12 per cent. The state continued to perform better in terms of recoveries too, with an increased rate of 97.11 per cent. Kolkata was allocated the highest number of COVID vaccines in West Bengal, at 93,500, for the first phase of the vaccination drive. North 24 Parganas got the second-highest number of COVID vaccines at 47,000, followed by Murshidabad at 37,500.
Also read : Covid-19 vaccine drive in Bengal
The state government has increased the number of vaccination centres to 351 in recent times to help the mass to get vaccinated without much hassle. This is an encouragement from the state government to the public, who are spontaneously coming forward to get vaccinated. Apart from Covishield, West Bengal has also received 1.6 lakh doses of Covaxin, which has been made by Bharat Biotech and developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research.
Along with vaccination, West Bengal’s COVID-19 cases also saw a sharp drop till February – almost a drop of 5.12 per cent. The state continued to perform better in terms of recoveries too, with an increased rate of 97.11 per cent. Kolkata was allocated the highest number of COVID vaccines in West Bengal, at 93,500, for the first phase of the vaccination drive. North 24 Parganas got the second-highest number of COVID vaccines at 47,000, followed by Murshidabad at 37,500. West Bengal got 6,44,500 vaccines for the first phase of the drive.
The state government allowed the use of private hospitals as COVID vaccination centres, to ease the crowd. Very encouragingly, West Bengal witnessed one of the highest vaccine turnouts of 75.9 per cent, with four districts registering 100 per cent success. These districts are Purba Bardhaman (700/700), Jhargram (400/400), Darjeeling (498/500) and Kalimpong (100/100). There were five other districts that registered above 90 per cent turnout. Purba Medinipur registered 96 per cent (995/1,037) turnout, followed by Kolkata (93 per cent) and Murshidabad (92 per cent) as per health ministry reports.
