West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said she was ready to work with the Centre for speedy and universal vaccination as soon as a vaccine against COVID-19 is available. Ms. Banerjee was speaking at a video-conference held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“We are ready to work with Central and all other stakeholders to ensure speedy and universal vaccination for everyone as soon as the vaccine is available,” a press statement issued by the State government quoted the Chief Minister as saying.
Ms. Banerjee also pointed out that West Bengal has been successful in actually reducing the positivity rate and the death rate and in improving the discharge rate despite festivities in the Durga Puja-Kali Puja-Chath puja season and the resumption of massive suburban rail movements.
In the video conference she also pointed out that West Bengal has been performing “remarkably well” compared with similarly placed other metropolitan regions of the country even though it is a border State with international borders with multiple countries and several States.
Ms. Banerjee also raised the issue of the central government not yet having released adequate funds in favour of the States. “The State has already spent around ₹4,000 crore only on account of COVID management but till now GOI has released only ₹193 crore,” the press statement said.
The Chief Minister also added that as far as West Bengal is concerned, the dues on account of GST compensation to the tune of ₹8,500 crore have accumulated. She also suggested that competitive rallies and public health hazards must be avoided in the greater public interest.
West Bengal added 3,545 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, taking total number of cases to 4,63,463. The State recorded 49 deaths in the past 24 hours taking the fatalities in the State to 8,121. The discharge rate in has increased to 92.88% and the percentage of positive cases out of samples tested increased to 8.26%.
