3rd wave: Women having young children to get vaccine on priority, says Mamata

Amid a warning that children might be infected during the possible third wave of coronavirus, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said that priority would be given to inoculate women having children aged up to 12 years.

She also said that the state would start inoculating at least four lakh people on an average daily from Thursday.

"We are giving importance to the third wave. The second wave has increased the number of infections. We have decided to prioritise inoculating the mothers of children aged zero to 12 years old, so that the child does not get the infection from the mother," she said.

At least two crore people have been vaccinated against Covid-19 in the state till now, Banerjee said.

"We have decided to start vaccinating at least four lakh people from tomorrow," the chief minister said.

The West Bengal government has decided to have at least 26,000 Covid-19 beds for women in state-run as well as private medical facilities.

Besides, around 10,000 general beds have been earmarked for mild and moderate paediatric cases in the age group of 90 days to 12 years and 20 per cent of special newborn care unit (SNCU) beds for Covid positive patients aged between 1 day and 90 days.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, 38 people succumbed to the coronavirus taking the toll to 17,475, a health department bulletin said.

The tally mounted to 14,87,363 after 1,925 fresh cases of infection were registered in the state, it said.

In the last 24 hours, 2,017 recoveries have been registered in West Bengal, improving the discharge rate to 97.32 per cent.

The number of active cases now is 22,378, the bulletin said.

Altogether 55,589 samples have been tested in the state on Wednesday, the bulletin said.

During the day, at least 3.33 lakh people were inoculated in the state, a health department official said.