Mamata to chair meeting of TMC national working committee
Trinamul Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee will preside over the meeting of the national working committee of the party tomorrow. The meeting will be held at her Kalighat residence.
Amid a prevailing vaccine crunch in Kolkata, a large consignment of vaccines have reached the city at Kolkata airport from Hyderabad and Pune, confirmed airport authorities.
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) could not administer Covishield doses for two consecutive days due to a lack of vaccine stock. All 102 urban primary health centres (UPHCs) and 50 mega centres, administering only Covishield vaccines, remained shut, leading to people running frantically from one centre to the other to get their Covishield doses.
Following the arrival of fresh vaccine stock, the KMC said Covishield doses will be given on 9 August, but that all Covishield centres will again remain shut from 10 August until further notice. It cited the lack of vaccines from the government of India as the reason. The paucity had led to increasing queues outside government hospitals with the idea that hospitals must be having some stock.
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The KMC has only 39 Covaxin centres and the rest administer Covishield. A civic body official had said that the KMC was hoping to receive a fresh batch of Covishield doses by Sunday, and hoping to resume vaccination by Monday.
Today, the Kolkata airport authorities have informed that 20 boxes of vaccines have already arrived at the city airport from Hyderabad, 69 boxes from Pune and another 30 boxes from Pune airport via Lucknow. The consignment
contains both Covishield and Covaxin ampules, it was learnt.
An airport official said Kolkata airport has been instrumental in furthering the Indian government’s vaccination programme since it is from here that large consignments are further delivered to other parts in the east and northeast.
However, the KMC at present requires more Covishield vaccines without which meeting the inoculation target before the onset of a third wave may become difficult, said a civic body official, commenting on Covishield centres about to remain closed from Tuesday due to lack of supply.
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