The state health department has asked the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to launch an extensive campaign so more people turn up for Covid shots and wastage is reduced, an official in the department said.
The civic body has been complaining that very few people are turning up for Covid shots at its vaccination centres.
“Because of the low turnout, we often have to turn away people to prevent vaccine wastage,” said an official.
“At many centres, it has become common to turn away groups of four to five persons. This is true for adult as well as child vaccination.”
A vial of Corbevax, which has been approved for children between 12 and 14 years, has 20 doses.
A Covishield vial has 10 doses, Covaxin vials come in two sizes — one with 10 doses and the other with 20. A KMC official said most of the Covaxin vials they have been receiving contain 20 doses.
“Opening a vial with only 4 or 5 takers will result in wastage of a lot of doses, and not opening it means a number of people will remain unvaccinated for a longer period,” said a civic official.
On Wednesday, deputy mayor Atin Ghosh had said the KMC had raised the issue with the state health department.
“It is true that we are facing this problem where we are not being able to open a vial because very few people are turning up. We have raised this issue with the state health department,” Ghosh had said.
“Mayor Firhad Hakim has spoken with the secretary of the state health department. He asked the health secretary to raise the issue with the Union healthy ministry.”
State health secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam told Metro on Thursday that the department had asked the KMC to launch extensive campaign to make people aware of the need to get the shots, including the booster dose.
“The stated policy is not to waste vaccine. We have already asked the KMC to do awareness campaign so that more people can be mobilised to get vaccinated at the centres,” Nigam said.
“A lot of people will be waiting to take booster doses. If all these people turn up, the vaccine wastage problem will not be there.”
This newspaper reported on June 8 that Covid vaccination centres in the city, run by the KMC as well as private hospitals, were witnessing a low turnout for booster doses.
Civic officials had then said they also had to turn away some people because the KMC did not want to waste vaccine.
A KMC official who manages Covid vaccination in a part of Kolkata said they usually try to open a vial with 20 doses only after at least 15 persons turn up.
The KMC has two Corbevax centres in each of the 16 boroughs. Around five children turn up at each centre every day, the official said.
But the situation may change soon with a gradual increase in the number of Covid cases in the state. Several private hospitals in the city have already witnessed a rise in the demand for Covid vaccines.
