The Covid vaccination programme for 12-14 year olds started on Tuesday in both Salt Lake and New Town.
Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation is administering Corbevax from the ground floor of Matri Sadan in EE Block, Vidyasagar Matri Sadan in Rajarhat and Deshbandhu Hospital in Baguiati.
At Matri Sadan, a vaccinator said that the turnout in the first couple of days was satisfactory. “We had more than 50 kids take the shot. We are also giving second doses of Covishield,” said the hospital official.
Each Corbevax vial is being used to jab 20 children. According to a civic official, there is no shortage in supply and the vaccine programme has been “running smoothly”.
Banibrata Banerjee, the newly sworn-in mayoral council member in charge of health, said they wanted to vaccinate as many children as possible in an orderly fashion. “We are taking the contact numbers of the parents so we can alert them ahead of the next dose. We are trying to increase the number of centres from which the vaccines are being given,” said Banerjee.
According to him, teams of vaccinators are also being sent to different schools on a set schedule to administer Corbevax to schoolchildren.
“We sent a team to Apeejay School in Salt Lake to administer shots to students. We have also prepared a list of both government-run and private schools where we will send teams,” Banerjee told The Telegraph.
At all the centres run by the civic body, vaccines are being administered from 10am to 4pm. Registering on the CoWin app is recommended but the centres are also allowing spot registrations. An identity card like Aadhaar along with the school identity card need to be carried to the centre, a civic official said.
In New Town, too, children are being jabbed at the Terminus building behind Pride Hotel.
Debashis Sen, the chairman of New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA), said that booking a slot on the CoWin portal was encouraged in order to get jabbed there. “We are getting children not only from New Town but also from Salt Lake and Rajarhat. Since we are getting a limited number of vials, booking a slot is recommended,” said Sen.
Bidhannagar Subdivisional Hospital is allowing walk-ins but response has been poor on the first day. “We are giving Corbevax on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. This Tuesday, only 10 students came. Half the vial was wasted,” said hospital superintendant Partha Pratim Guha.
The Terminus building centre had 60 people coming on Tuesday, using up three Corbevax vials. On Wednesday, 41 were jabbed. Another nine were asked to return the day after so as not to waste a vial.
Sumit Datta had to go all the way from BH Block to New Town as he could not find a single Salt Lake centre on the CoWin app. “My daughter’s school is not allowing parents to be present during vaccination. So I brought her here. The process was very smooth,” he said on Wednesday.
