Express News Service
Private hospitals’ help sought for ramping up vaccine drive
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has sought the help of private hospitals to ramp up COVID-19 vaccination in the city and offered properties belonging to it for private units to organise off-site vaccination drives.
The issues related to vaccination were discussed during a meeting with senior officials of private hospitals at the civic headquarters on Thursday. The hospitals were asked to place more orders for vaccines than what they are doing now so that more people can be brought under the vaccination net.
The state government will help source COVID vaccines for private hospitals so that they do not have to slow down their vaccination pace because of any supply issues, said the officials.
Formula to evaluate Class 12 students ready
In lieu of Class 12 examinations in the 2020-21 academic year, the Bengal higher secondary council has decided to evaluate students by giving 40 per cent weightage to their performance in Class 10 board exams and 60 per cent in class 11 annual exams.
The state education department decided to scrap Higher Secondary 2021 exams because of the surge in COVID cases.
Instead, it has decided that combined weightage of the two exams (Class 10 and Class 11) will be added to 30-mark practicals (for lab-based subjects) or 20-mark project work (for non-lab subjects) and this will be considered the “principal basis of evaluation” to arrive at the final marks of Class 12 candidate.
While factoring in the secondary exam marks, students’ performance in the best four subjects (carrying 400 marks) will be considered.
Candidates to write XLAT from home on July 18
St Xavier’s University, New Town, which had postponed the Xavier Law Admission Test (XLAT) in April because of the COVID-19 pandemic, has scheduled the test for July 18. Aspirants can write the tests online from home.
The computer-based test that would have required visiting examination centres was to be held in nine cities, including Kolkata, on April 25. Now, the test will be internet-based. If an aspirant has poor connectivity at home, he or she can go to the campus and use the university’s facilities to write the test, said the varsity officials.
Action recommended against three city hospitals
The West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission on Friday recommended legal action against three private hospitals in Kolkata. A probe found that the three hospitals, with common ownership, lacked adequate infrastructure and had presented inflated bills to patients and were operating with healthcare personnel who were not qualified.
One of the complainants told the commission that he had deposited Rs 1 lakh during admission and when the patient was discharg- ed after a day, he was refunded only Rs 20,000. The patient was charged `80,000 for one day’s treatment.
