The Kolkata Municipal Corporation today announced that all its Covaxin centres will remain closed from 13 September till further notice. The civic body has however clarified that its Covishield vaccination centres would continue to function as usual.
The KMC notice has attributed the closure of Covaxin centres to lack of supply from the Government of India. The KMC recently had recovered from a paucity of Covishield vaccines which led to the closure of inoculation centres and had hampered its vaccination target. No sooner than the supply of Covishield stabilised, the civic body has now run out of Covaxin.
A KMC official said that this paucity has totally delayed KMC’s target which it aimed to fulfill before the onset of Durga Puja. “The closure has created backlogs and paved the way for chaos at vaccine centres. The situation can get worrisome if maximum people are not vaccinated before the onset of the third wave.”
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee recently said that Bengal needs 14 Cr vaccine doses which include for kids. She said at present the state is giving out approx 10-12 lakh doses every day. The CM had highlighted that 75% of vaccination is completed in Kolkata while the state government is doing all it can to vaccinate the rest.