Several private hospitals in Calcutta are setting up bigger and permanent structures for Covid-19 vaccination as they realise the drive is likely to continue for many months and the state government is asking them to increase the number of daily doses being administered as cases are rising again.
Some hospitals have refurbished the vaccination rooms, while others are planning to relocate the sites within the campus so more people can be accommodated.
Officials of several private hospitals said they had started the vaccination drive at makeshift facilities that did not have air-conditioning and enough seating arrangements.
Initially, some of the private hospitals had planned not to continue with the Covid-19 vaccination, which had started in India on January 16, for long. Requests from the people and the government, however, prompted them to change their decision and they are now setting up permanent sites.
Two more fliers who arrived from Dubai between February 23 and March 4 were detected with UK strain of the mutated SARS-CoV-2 virus, that causes Covid-19, on Sunday.
The number of people reaching Calcutta with mutant strains of the coronavirus now stands at six, health department officials said.
Earlier four of them had tested positive for the mutant strains of the coronavirus, including one with the South African-strain, and the rest with the UK-strain.
Among the three fliers tested positive for the UK strain one was admitted to Infectious Diseases (ID) Hospital in Beleghata on Saturday. The state government from Monday will start tracing other passengers and crew members of the flights on which these people had travelled. The family members of those who have tested positive have been asked to undergo RT-PCR test for Covid-19.
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KOLKATA: The number of Covid vaccination centres (CVC) in Kolkata doubled on Wednesday, a day after the Centre allowed more private hospitals to be a part of the immunisation programme. Till Tuesday, there were a total of 25 CVCs (10 private hospitals and 15 government vaccination centres) in the city; now, there are 25 more, with the state government including 17 private and eight government hospitals. The health department said even more would be added by the weekend.
The decision would come as a relief for senior citizens and those above 45 years old with comorbidities, the target group for this stage of the countrywide inoculation programme. Many of them had found out that the earliest available vaccination dates were only towards the end of the month. Several had complained of overcrowded CVCs and long waiting times.
Hundreds of elderly people in and around Calcutta waited for hours on Tuesday for a Covid-19 vaccine shot and many went back without getting one because of glitches in the registration portal and other technical problems.
Several private hospitals, including those that are planning to start vaccinating senior citizens and those above 45 with comorbidities on Wednesday, said they would record the personal details of a recipient and administer the shot if the technical problems persist.
They will later upload the details on the Co-Win2 app when it will function without glitches.
“The portal’s issues were not resolved and it was not functioning properly throughout the day. Session sites could not be created according to the plan. Because of that the vaccination programme suffered today, too,” said a health department official.