Kolkata: In wake of fresh spike in COVID-19 cases throughout the country, West Bengal health department has sought supply of 5.75 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccines from the Centre.
Of the 5.75 lakh doses, five lakh are for Covishield and the remaining 75,000 for Covaxin.
A senior official of the state health department said that the fresh request for COVID-19 vaccines to the Union government has been made in wake of apprehension that there might be fresh demands for booster doses in the state amid the recent spike in active cases.
“As it is there was reluctance among the people to go for booster dozes. The reluctance was aggravated further because of the dip in the number of active cases in the recent past. So, the state health department had to send back a huge stock of doses to the Union government before their expiry. Currently, the stock of doses is limited and is not enough to meet the requirement in case demand for booster dozes amid fresh spike in fresh cases. Hence, the state government has given fresh requisition of 5.75 lakh doses,” he said.
As per the records of the state health department, there are 127 active cases of COVID-19 in the state. The number of fresh cases reported during the last 24 hours in the state was 14. The maximum number of current active cases have been reported from the state capital of Kolkata. The affected persons have been kept under isolation. During the last three months, just one Corona- related death has been reported from West Bengal.
IANS
