E-Paper
Over 1.8m second vaccine dose overdue in West Bengal
Two doses of any of the two vaccines are required for adequate protection against severe Covid infection and hospitalisation, especially those caused by mutant strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus
More than 1.8 million West Bengal residents have not taken the second dose of the two Covid-19 vaccines, Covishield and Covaxin, despite completion of the prescribed intervals between the two doses, forcing the state government to step up its drive to bridge the gap, which it claims is gradually narrowing.
“Till date at least 1,809,884 people in West Bengal haven’t taken their second dose on time. The maximum number of such cases has been reported from Alipurduar district in north Bengal where around 218,000 doses are overdue followed by 140,000 cases in Hooghly district. In Kolkata, around 108,451 people have not taken their second dose,” said a health department official.
The prescribed gap between the first and second dose of the vaccine is 12 weeks for Covishield and four weeks for Covaxin.
Two doses of any of the two vaccines are required for adequate protection against severe Covid infection and hospitalisation, especially those caused by mutant strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
In October, the Union health ministry wrote to several states including West Bengal, pointing out that the lag in administering the second dose, asking them to address the issue on priority.
“We have stepped up the drive to administer the second dose. On November 16, while the number of first doses given was 241,568, the number of second doses given was 290,145. In October, the number of overdue cases was more than 3.2 million, which has come down now,” said the official quoted above.
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The official suggested there could be plenty of reasons beyond the government’s control for a high number of second dose of Covid vaccines remaining overdue. Citing an example, he said several personnel of the Central security forces might have taken their first dose of vaccine in West Bengal during the assembly elections in April and May but had since left the state. He added that some recipients of the first dose might have died and many others might have been forced to delay their second dose after contracting Covid-19 in the interim.
Lately, West Bengal is registering more than 800 new Covid cases daily, showing an increasing trend after the festive season.
“Covid-19 safety protocols were rampantly flouted during the festive season. Many were not wearing masks, leave aside adherence to social distancing and sanitisation,” said Sukumar Mukherjee, member of the expert committee that was set up in 2020 to advice chief minister Mamata Banerjee on pandemic-related matters.
