13,693 frontline health workers get COVID-19 vaccine

At least 13,693 frontline healthworkers received the Covishield vaccine on Tuesday at 200centres in West Bengal, a senior health department officialsaid.Eleven cases of Adverse event following ImmunisationAEFI were reported, of which 10 cases were minor while onlyone person in Jhargram was undergoing treatment at thedistrict hospital there, he said.At least 11 AEFI cases are reported today but mostare minor like pain for the injection, reeling, nausea andother side effects.

At least 13,693 frontline healthworkers received the Covishield vaccine on Tuesday at 200centres in West Bengal, a senior health department officialsaid.

Eleven cases of Adverse event following Immunisation(AEFI) were reported, of which 10 cases were minor while onlyone person in Jhargram was undergoing treatment at thedistrict hospital there, he said.

''At least 11 AEFI cases are reported today but mostare minor like pain for the injection, reeling, nausea andother side effects. Most of them have been sent home afterinitial observation. Only one is undergoing treatment at theJhargram DH while another was discharged from Jangipur SDHafter initial treatment,'' he said.

The health condition of the 35-year-old nurse,undergoing treatment at the NRS Medical College and Hospitalwith AEFI, ''is better today'', the official said.

''She is responding well to the treatment. All thenecessary investigations were done and are found to be allright. In West Bengal the AEFI rate is still one in athousand, which is normally expected and proves that thesurveillance system is functioning well and no major sideeffects noticed after this 43,000 doses. This is a hugesuccess and will help us in confidence building of Covidvaccination,'' Director of Health Services (DHS) AjoyChakraborty said.

The CoWIN software, prepared to monitor theinoculation process throughout the country, stoppedfunctioning for around four hours on Tuesday, the officialsaid.

''The portal is working better now but the delayed SMSservice is still hampering the optimal performance. It wascompletely non-operational from 3.30 pm to 7 pm today creatinglots of trouble in session allocation,'' he said.

The state will be receiving the second allotment ofCovishield around 6.99 lakh doses on Wednesday, the officialsaid.

Meanwhile, West Bengal on Tuesday registered 11 deathstaking the COVID-19 death toll to 10,074, the healthdepartment said.

The tally went up to 5,66,073 with 412 fresh cases ofthe contagion.

The discharge rate improved to 97.02 per cent with 513recoveries pushing the total number of people recovering fromthe disease to 5,49,218.

North 24 Parganas accounted for four deaths whilethere were three fatalities in South 24 Parganas and one eachin the city, Howrah, Hooghly and Uttar Dinajpur districts, itsaid.

Of the 11 deaths, nine were due to the comorbiditieswhere COVID-19 was incidental.

Covid-19 claimed another doctor in West Bengal onTuesday taking the total number of deaths of medicalpractitioners to 92, a senior official of the state healthdepartment said.

Dr Jadav Chatterjee (64), Head of department ofAnatomy and former principal of Kolkata Medical College andHospital, died on Tuesday morning due to post covidcomplications, a health department official said.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee condoled the death ofDr Chatterjee and tweeted, ''Saddened to hear about the deathof Prof (Dr) JC Chattopadhyay, HoD Anatomy, Medical CollegeKolkata due to #COVID19. He served the health department invarious capacities since 1988, was a popular teacher & hadmany publications to his credit. My thoughts are with hisfamily during this time.'' Veteran film actress Lily Chakraborty (79) testedpositive for the Covid-19 following which she was put on homeisolation.

The actress was having fever since Saturday followingwhich she underwent tests for the Covid-19, a healthdepartment official said.