Long queues outside vaccination centres in WB's Siliguri, women wait for hours to get jabbed

Siliguri (West Bengal) [India], July 24 (ANI): Following an alleged vaccine crisis in West Bengal, women, especially the mothers of children between the age group of 0-12 years, waited in long queues outside a Covid vaccination centre in Niranjan Nagar of West Bengal's Siliguri district on Friday for several hours to get their first shot of vaccine.

Sapna Paul, who had been waiting for hours in the queue said, "We are mostly mothers of kids between 0-12 years. We've been here since morning but to no avail. They've asked us to come tomorrow. We're not sure if we'll be vaccinated tomorrow either."

"There is no safety, social distancing here. It's like waiting here for the vaccine will give us corona. We want the government to slot our names beforehand for vaccination," she added.

Adding to it, Silpi Das, standing in the queue for over 8 hours, said, "There is no safety here, no social distancing. If this is how we are going to receive the vaccine, then I think corona cases will increase rather than decreasing."

"I would like to request the government to make the system more managed; the way we all have been waiting, I am not sure if we will be getting the vaccine or not...but the probability of us being infected by the virus is high," she added.

Goutam Deb, former minister and chairman of Siliguri Municipal Corporation said, "We are trying to manage the crowd from one place to another place but the supply (of vaccines) is not adequate. There is always less supply, so, the state government is helpless." (ANI)