COVID-19: Health officials trek over 10 km to vaccinate remote villages in Bengal

To conduct a COVID-19 vaccination drive for people above 45 years,  Alipurduar District Magistrate (DM) Surendra Kumar Meena along with health officials trekked more than 10-km through forests and hilly areas to reach a remote village called Adma, on Sunday.

Surendra Kumar Meena was quoted by ANI saying, "This programme has been conducted under the State Government's 'Duare Tikakaran Abhiyan'. The Adma village in the Alipurduar district is one of the most remote areas of the state. Other vaccination centres and sub-centres are very far from there."

"It feels really good that the DM himself came to ensure that we are vaccinated. We were worried about our vaccination since it is a remote location, but we are really thankful to the district administration for putting in efforts for the people and visiting the area and conducting the vaccination drive. They also distributed masks and sanitisers, interacted with us, asked about our problems, and told us about various development prospects," a beneficiary said. 

The centralized COVID-19 free vaccination policy started on Monday under which the government will provide free vaccine doses to every Indian citizen above 18 years. Under the centralized policy, the Central government would procure 75 per cent of vaccines and give them to states for free distribution to all citizens above the age of 18.

COVID Situation In Bengal

Meanwhile, West Bengal's COVID tally rose to 14,81,707 on Sunday as 2,184 more people tested positive for the infection. 53 fresh fatalities pushed the state's coronavirus death toll to 17,348, a health bulletin said. North 24 Parganas district registered the highest number of new cases at 332 followed by Purba Medinipur (225) and Kolkata (185). North 24 Parganas also recorded the highest number of fresh fatalities at 9, followed by Kolkata (7) and South 24 Parganas (7). As many as 2,128 more people have been cured of the disease, taking the recovery rate among the coronavirus patients in the state to 97.28 per cent. The state now has 23,016 active cases, while 14,41,343 people have recovered from the disease to date. West Bengal so far has tested over 1.36 crore samples for COVID-19. A total of 1.88 crore people in the state have been vaccinated thus far, including 2.78 lakh during the day, the health department said.

(With Agency Inputs)