30,000 more health workers get COVID vaccine shot in Bengal

Over 30,000 frontline healthworkers were vaccinated for COVID-19 in West Bengal on Friday,taking the total number of people who got the jab to 84,505, asenior official of the health department said.

Out of the set target of 35,100 for Friday, 30,517received Covishield doses in 351 centres across the stateduring the day.

Eleven cases of adverse event following immunization(AEFI), mostly minor, were reported, the official said.

''All the AEFI cases reported so far are doing well.

The nurse who was admitted to the CCU of the Nil Ratan SircarMedical College and Hospital (in Kolkata on January 16) withAEFI was also discharged today,'' the official said.

The woman who lost consciousness minutes after takingthe vaccine shot on the first day of the inoculation driveapparently had a drug allergy though experts are yet to reacha conclusion on the reason behind it.

The state health department during the day received1.13 lakh more doses of the vaccine.

Meanwhile, the COVID-19 toll in West Bengal rose to10,097 with eight more fatalities which included three inKolkata, the health department said in a bulletin.

Out of the 8 deaths, six were due to comorbiditieswhere COVID-19 was incidental.

The tally mounted to 5,67,304 after 406 fresh cases ofinfection were reported. Of the new cases, 115 were registeredin North 24 Parganas district.

The discharge rate improved to 97.08 per cent after493 recoveries have been reported in the last 24 hours.

Till date, 5,50,737 people have recovered from thedisease in the state.

Since Thursday, 28,171 samples have been tested forCOVID-19 in the state taking the total number of such tests to77,79,840, the bulletin said.