Vaccination drives at full throttle in Biswanath tea gardens

A CORRESPONDENT

BISWANATH CHARIALI: In view of the precarious COVID scenario in tea garden areas of Biswanath, the district administration has taken up vaccination drives in gardens on a war footing. On an average, 1,300 persons are being vaccinated daily in tea garden areas.

"The COVID situation in tea garden areas is really bad. We are concerned at the fast spread of the virus among tea garden population. The only way out now to make our tea garden areas COVID free is aggressive testing and vaccination. The aim is to vaccinate the whole tea garden population above the age of 18 as early as possible," said Pranab Kumar Sarmah, Deputy Commissioner of Biswanath. Sarmah, who is monitoring the situation closely, has been of late paying regular visits to tea gardens and personally overseeing the various COVID management initiatives of the administration.

Meanwhile, a total of 33,727 persons have been vaccinated in tea garden areas till Thursday, which amounts to around 34 per cent of the total tea garden population in Biswanath district. Presently, 30 COVID Vaccination Centres (CVCs) are functional inside tea gardens. The Deputy Commissioner has been holding frequent meetings with tea garden managements and various associations and micro-planning every detail with regard to COVID management in garden areas. Besides, he has also asked the managements and associations to ramp up awareness campaigns in garden areas so that all abide by COVID protocols. Announcements through mobile vans too have been intensified to generate awareness. More than 1,000 persons from tea garden areas have been detected COVID positive till now in Biswanath, out of which 11 have died.

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