Mamata Banerjee said the state so far has received 1.31 crore doses of vaccine for frontline workers.
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking vaccines urgently for her state, especially frontline workers working for the state and Central government as well as the Central government employees who are in essential services. Citing the people working in airports, railway and ports, banks and the postal department, she wrote, "Unfortunately, the Central government policies keep no room to accommodate their needs".
"In Bengal, while we have taken steps to complete vaccination of a large section of frontline and electorally engaged employees across several sectors, we still need minimally 20 lakh doses to cover all the employees,"she wrote.
"We would request you to kindly make available adequate number of vaccines to all the State Governments so that they are able to cover all their employees without any further delay," she added.
At a press conference earlier today, the Chief Minister had said that Bengal needs 10 crore vaccine doses. "We were supposed to get 24 lakh doses this month. We received 13 lakh. Remdesivir is also not available," she added.
Initially, Bengal had asked for 3 crore vaccine doses, the Chief Minister said. "Now we want 8.6 crore but no one (other states) is getting," she said.
The state so far has received 1.31 crore doses of vaccine from the Centre for frontline workers. Of this, 1.26 crore has already been given. 70.5 lakh doses were received for the 45-plus age group.
The Chief Minister also questioned the bigger time gap announced by the Centre between two doses of Covishield. There has been two extensions so far -- initially from four to six weeks to six to eight weeks. Last week, the Centre said there should be a gap of 12 to 16 weeks.
Yesterday, there was a further tweak. Those who had Covid should wait for three months before they can take the vaccine, the Centre said. This also goes for those who fell ill after getting the first dose of the vaccine, the Centre said, stretching the four-week gap announced by Dr Randeep Guleria, chief of Delhi AIIMS and a member of the Centre's Covid Task Force.
"The other question I wanted to ask is about gap between vaccine doses. Is there any study, any guideline? " Ms Banerjee said. Then, reiterating the accusation already made by the Congress, she added, "There is no vaccine anyway, so now they are increasing the gaps".
Bengal, the Chief Minister said, is ready to buy vaccines, but none is available.
"If we follow the current formula, it will take 10 years to vaccinate all. We want to give universal vaccine," she added.