West Bengal officials trek to vaccinate residents of remote Alipurduar village

West Bengal government officials on Sunday travelled for more than 10 kilometres through forests and hilly areas to reach Adma, a remote village in the state’s Alipurduar district, to administer vaccines against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) to residents above the age of 45.

Alipurduar district magistrate Surendra Kumar Meena said the Covid-19 vaccination drive was carried out under the Bengal government’s ‘Duare Tikakaran Abhiyan’. “The Adma village in the Alipurduar district is one of the most remote areas of the state. Other vaccination centres and sub-centres are very far from there,” Meena said, according to news agency ANI. He added the drive was specifically for residents over 45 years so that they do not have to travel to faraway places to get inoculated.

“Around 50 people have been vaccinated as part of this drive. We have a target of vaccinating 100 people. We are also providing vaccination certificates to beneficiaries,” Meena said.

He also spoke to residents regarding the development which should take place in the village. “We took people’s opinions on any demands they have regarding development, infrastructure, health etc which we need to work upon,” the district magistrate said.

Rural areas across the country have been massively affected due to the ongoing second wave of the pandemic. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on May 14 that Covid-19 is rapidly spreading in villages and urged farmers to be aware of this ‘invisible enemy’ and take precautions accordingly.

The team, which conducted the vaccination drive in Adma, also distributed face masks, hand sanitisers to residents for maintaining hygiene.

One of the people, who was given the shot, told ANI that residents were worried about the vaccination as Adma is in a remote location. The person thanked the district administration for visiting the area and conducting the vaccination drive.

West Bengal has so far vaccinated 18.8 million people against the Covid-19 disease, of which 278,000 were vaccinated on Sunday, as per the state health department’s bulletin. As the state continues to grapple with a shortage of vaccine doses, the government has said it will not launch the universal vaccination program of administering free doses to beneficiaries between 18-45 years, senior health officials told Hindustan Times on Monday.

The state reported 2184 new Covid-19 cases and 53 more fatalities due to the viral disease on Sunday, taking the caseload and death toll to 1,481,707 and 17,348 respectively. The active cases have come down to 23,016 while the total recoveries have climbed to 1,441,343 and the recovery rate is at 97.28 per cent.

(With ANI inputs)