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Kolkata: Expressing grave concern over inadequate supplies of vaccine, medicine and oxygen in West Bengal amid the unprecedented surge in Covid-19 cases, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Mamata Banerjee has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating the state is looking for an active cooperation from the Centre in its bid to scale up the vaccination process and provide treatment to the needy.
Asserting “vaccination is of top importance”, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo in her letter said “focused and aggressive vaccination is extremely important” particularly “in our state and more particularly in metropolitan Kolkata where density of population is extremely high”.
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“Unfortunately for us, the supply of vaccines from the GOI (Government of India) side has been scarce and erratic which has been negatively affecting our vaccination programmes,” she added.
Pointing out “while West Bengal is one of the best performers in vaccination”, Banerjee said “it is now suffering because of uncertainties of supply” from the Government of India’s end.
“We have to vaccinate around 2.7 crore, and for that we need 5.4 doses. We request for an urgent intervention to ensure that the state gets its requirement of vaccine doses fulfilled at the earliest,” she added.
The TMC chief also drew attention to the fact that West Bengal wanted to purchase the doses of vaccination directly from the state funds and had written to Prime Minister Modi earlier on this issue.
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“The state has not received any requisite clearance yet,” she added.
Banerjee further said “the supply of essential medicines like remedesvir and tollizumab (Actemera) is extremely scarce and uncertain today, which has been a matter of grave concern for the doctors here”.
“We need around 6,000 vials of remedesvir and 1,000 vials of Tollizumab daily. However, presently only 1,000 vials of remedesvir are available daily and no fresh supply of tollizumab is coming. It may be seen that the relevant authorities step up their efforts to ensure steady supply of these most essential supplies of medicines as soon as possible,” IANS quoted the Chief Minister as saying.
“The supply of oxygen, as you know, must be assured and certain. SAIL is meeting our need for the moment and we shall be grateful if you kindly instruct them too for ensuring steady supplies,” she added.
The Chief Minister’s letter comes as West Bengal on Saturday registered its highest single-day spike of 7,713 Covid-19 cases, taking the state’s tally to over 6,50,000.
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