Darjeeling district health department has come up with a new plan to vaccinate health workers against Covid-19 and fulfil the 100-jabs-a-day target.

Vaccination in the district started on January 16 and 100 health workers are supposed to get the shot daily.

Sources in the health department said it was found that on a number of days those supposed to get the shot are not turning up. In such cases, other health workers who are yet to get the jab can approach the centres and take the vaccine, said health officials.

Sandeep Sengupta, the dean of student affairs and a gynaecologist at the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH) on Siliguri outskirts, said the district health department had asked for names of all the health workers for vaccination that have been collected and uploaded on a portal. “The names have been uploaded randomly. If all 100 supposed to get the shot on a given day do not turn up, others registered with the portal can approach the centre and take the vaccine in empty slots,” he said.

Initially, when vaccination started, there had been some demonstrations at NBMCH that a number of doctors were out of the list.

However, NBMCH principal Prabir Deb clarified that they had sent names of all the professors and doctors to the district health department. “All of them will be vaccinated in due course,” Deb said.

“So far, around 600 people have been enlisted and a handful of names need to be included,” said a health official.

Apart from senior and junior doctors, interns, house staff, paramedics, conservancy workers and office staff needs to be vaccinated.