KOLKATA: The state department has categorized all mothers with children up to 12 years as a priority group in the vaccination drive.
The order on Thursday came a day after Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee had announced it, explaining why these women need vaccine protection before the third wave.
For the city, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has been asked to implement this drive while district magistrates and CMOHs (chief medical officer health) have been given the responsibility in the rest of the state.
“Since there is a hypothesis of more children getting infected during the third wave, strategies like this will be helpful in protecting kids.
As there is no vaccine yet for children, the best alternative is to immunize adults who will be in close contact with them,” said community medicine specialist Sanjib Bandyopadhyay.
Times ViewThe decisions appear to be the result of research and following the virus’s trend elsewhere.
The implementation, too, will have to be as planned and methodical.
Hopefully, the measures will help in curbing the disease’s spread.“On Wednesday, we already had a preliminary discussion on including mothers who have children up to the age of 12 into the drive.
We have scheduled a KMC Covid Health Committee meeting on Friday where we will discuss on steps to be taken up so that we can start implementing it at the earliest,” said Rajya Sabha MP Santanu Sen, the health advisor to KMC’s board of governors.
KMC officials are expected to discuss on the modalities.
Issues like mechanisms to identify this group of mothers, organizing special camps to inoculate them or if they could walk into any government vaccination centres will be clearer after the Friday meeting.
While a section of women between 18-44 are taking the jab at private centres, those who cannot afford the shot have been left out of the drive.
This step by the state government has given a relief to the likes of Rina Mistry of Patipukur, who has two children aged 4 and 7.
His husband, a bus conductor, has already got the jab from RG Kar Medical College.
In addition, the state health department has also included construction workers in the vaccination drive on a priority basis.