The state health department is nudging people whose second doses of Covishield are due or those who have not taken their second dose within the mandatory 16 weeks, a senior official of the department said on Saturday.
The department’s field workers will visit homes to remind people about their second vaccine dose. They will call those they cannot visit.
The vaccination centres have a separate queue for second dose recipients so no one goes back fearing a long wait, said Asim Das Malakar, the state family welfare officer.
He said the problem was not so much with Covaxin because only a few people had taken it.
“We have found that there are around 15 lakh people who have not taken their second dose though the mandatory 16-week period within which the second dose of Covishield must be taken has passed,” said Malakar.
“There are also a large number of people whose second doses are due, which means they have crossed 84 days from taking the first shot of Covishield.”
The majority of Covid vaccines administered in Bengal have been Covishield. The latest guidelines issued by the Union ministry of health said the second dose of Covishield can be taken between 12 and 16 weeks from the date of taking the first dose.
A senior official of the state health department said starting early November, the number of people whose second dose would become due will keep increasing rapidly every day.
The state started getting a steady volume of vaccine doses from July, the official said. “Naturally, a large number of people started taking their first dose from July. Their second dose will be due from early November.”
Owing to the festivities over the last 10 days, a number of people may not have taken their second dose. A nudge or a reminder will draw these people to vaccination centres, felt health department officials.
According to the CoWin website, Bengal had administered over 7,11,40,288 crore doses till 3.18pm on Saturday, with 1,94,91,754 of them being second doses.
Malakar said that 39 per cent of those who took the first doses have received their second doses.
Doctors of the health department said that administering the second dose was very important as it would provide better protection against Covid.
“Our primary target is to prod and enthuse people who second doses have become due so that they do not miss it,” said a doctor of the state health department.
The Calcutta Municipal Corporation, which has the largest network of Covid vaccination centres in the state, has also pursued the same strategy to ensure that people do not skip their second doses.
“We got good feedback by reaching out to those whose second doses had become due. Within days of our reminder, most of them came to our centres and took the second shot,” said a CMC official.
The state is also aiming to administer close to 2 crore doses in October.
“We have already administered close to 1.3 crore doses already this month. If we get a good supply of doses in remaining days of October we may touch the 1.9 crore mark. We are vaccinating about 7-8 lakh people every day on an average,” said the official.
