Friday, March 29, 2024

CM Mamata Banerjee writes to PM Modi, seeks adequate supply of COVID vaccines to West Bengal

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By PTI
KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention to ensure an adequate supply of COVID vaccines, medicines and oxygen to the state, which has been reporting a sharp spike in fresh infections.

In her two-page letter to the prime minister, Banerjee said that vaccines, medicines and oxygen are of paramount importance to contain the second COVID wave.

Noting that vaccination is of top importance in densely populated West Bengal and particularly Kolkata, she, however, lamented, “Unfortunately for us, the supply of vaccines from the Centre has been scarce and erratic, which is negatively affecting our vaccination programmes.”

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Claiming that West Bengal is one of the best performers in vaccination in the country, she said that the state is, however, now suffering due to an uncertain supply of vials from the Centre. “We have to vaccinate around 2.7 crore people for which we need 5.4 crore doses. We request for an urgent intervention to ensure that the state gets its requirement of vaccine doses fulfilled at the earliest,” she wrote.

She complained that her government wants to purchase the doses from state funds and had earlier written to the prime minister about it but did not receive “requisite clearance” yet. Banerjee also urged Modi to ensure a steady supply of essential medicines to combat the surge in coronavirus cases.

“The supply of essential medicines like Remdesivir and Tocilizumab is extremely scarce and uncertain today, which has been a matter of grave concern for the doctors here. We need around 6,000 vials of Remdesivir and 1,000 vials of Tocilizumab every day,” she wrote.

“Presently, only 1,000 vials of Remdesivir are available every day and no fresh supply of Tocilizumab is coming. It may be seen that the relevant authorities step up their efforts to ensure a steady supply of these most essential supplies of medicines as soon as possible,” she said.

Banerjee also requested the prime minister to increase the oxygen supply to the state. “The state is willing to extend its resources to the fullest in tandem with the Centre to tackle the pandemic the country is facing now and overcome it,” she added.

Besides, her letter also held Bengal visit by “outsiders” for election purposes responsible for the steep rise in cases, an issue she has been raising while addressing rallies. 

The two-page letter to the PM says, “You must recall that I had written to you on February 24, 2021 to allow the state to purchase vaccine doses directly using state funds. However, the state has not received the requisite clearance yet. In the mean time, number of cases in the state has also begun to increase, particularly in view of coming of large number of outsiders to the state for election campaign and other purposes at the behest of some political parties.”

A TMC leader said Mamata is likely to use her letter to the PM to sharpen attack on the Centre. “This is why, she reminded the Centre about her communication on February 24 seeking nod for purchasing vaccines directly,” he said. Countering Mamata’s allegation that BJP was responsible for the rising cases in the state, PM Modi said the CM had skipped  two meetings chaired by him to discuss the scenario.

West Bengal, where an eight-phase assembly election is underway, registered its highest single-day spike of 7,713 new cases on Saturday.

(With ENS inputs)

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