City for the second time in the past three days does not report a death due to COVID-19
West Bengal on Monday made it mandatory to produce either proof of full vaccination or negative report of RT-PCR tests for all inbound passengers to Kolkata as the city for the second time in the past three days did not report a death due to COVID-19.
“As per the latest guidelines of the government, all inbound passengers [commercial & non-commercial flight] shall produce at the time of boarding either proof of full vaccination or RT-PCR negative test report for test conducted within 72hrs of such flight departure,” the Kolkata airport tweeted.
The State recorded 12 deaths in the past 24 hours taking the number to 18,001 but the metropolis did not record a single death. On July 17, the city also did not record a single death while one person had died the next day. This is the first time in the past several months that there was not a single death in the city due to the viral infection. In the past three days, the city recorded less than 100 cases of infection.
Shortage of vaccines
As the infections and deaths have continued to decline, Kolkata and the rest of the State are facing shortage of vaccines. People are lining up at the municipal centres in vain.
Minister and Chairman of Board of Administrators Firhad Hakim said Kolkata is getting only half the stock required. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday visited a centre.
Ms. Banerjee had last week written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging adequate stock so that substantial population is vaccinated before the third wave sets in.
“As per the intimation received from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the State has been allocated 73 lakh doses for July. But unfortunately only 25 lakh doses have been received till date,” she wrote in her letter on July 15.
“We have the capacity to vaccinate more than 10 lakh people every day, provided sufficient quantity is made available.”
The Chief Minister pointed out that the State had administered 2.5 crore doses (1.81 crore first and 0.70 crore second) from January 16 to July 15. Ms. Banerjee said the Centre has supplied 2.12 crore doses, the State government procured 18 lakh doses and the balance was provided by the private sector.
As the State and the city witness shortage of vaccines, the BJP held protests over the fake vaccination racket. Leaders including former State president Rahul Sinha were among those arrested for organising protests. The Enforcement Directorate has written to the Kolkata police seeking details of the documents seized from Debanjan Deb, prime accused in the fake vaccination scam.
Source: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/proof-of-vaccination-a-must-for-inbound-passengers-to-kolkata/article35416709.ece
