Bengal to up to tn populous states must vaccinate faster cms should take charge they can’t blame centre anymore

Bengal to up to tn populous states must vaccinate faster cms should take charge they can’t blame centre anymore

The festival season was always going to be challenging for the country’s Covid mitigation efforts. And the first ominous signs are emerging from Bengal. There appears to be a direct correlation between the state’s spurt in Covid cases and the recent Durga Puja celebrations that saw big crowds and little adherence to Covid protocols. In fact, Bengal’s 989 cases reported on October 24 were a three-month high. While this should compel state authorities to ramp up testing, they seem to be moving in the opposite direction.

Bengal had conducted around 13 lakh tests in August and approximately 11 lakh in September. But till the 27th of this month, it had conducted just nine lakh tests. This, despite the fact that the positivity rate is inching up. In Kolkata the positivity rate has gone from 5.6% in the week ending October 14 to 7.1% in the week ending October 21. The double whammy comes in the form of subpar vaccination rates with Bengal fully vaccinating with two doses only 27% of its adult population compared to the national average of 32.5% as of October 24. Laggard districts include Malda, North Dinajpur and Cooch Behar where even single-dose vaccination coverage was hovering around 50% on October 18.

The lessons from Bengal are that the pace of second dose vaccination needs to be ramped up – and there can be no let-up in Covid-appropriate behaviour. Plus, populous states cannot be satisfied with the total number of vaccines administered till date. It is precisely because they have larger populations that they simply cannot ease up on the pace of vaccination. This holds true for UP and Bihar as well which have only 20% and 22% respectively of their adult population fully vaccinated. Additionally, there are questions about populous UP’s testing – it had administered more than 12 lakh vaccines on October 25 but conducted only around 1.5 lakh tests. This is no time to slack on test, trace and treat.

Meanwhile, Himachal Pradesh’s 261 cases on Wednesday were the highest since September 21 despite 100% single dose vaccine coverage. Another concern is Tamil Nadu where daily cases have consistently remained above 1,000 throughout this month while daily vaccination has been below two lakh on most days, with just 27.5% of the state’s adult population fully vaccinated. The worrying question is whether India today is experiencing the lull before another Covid storm. Chief ministers of laggard states better buck up. This time they can’t blame the Centre.