Kolkata, Jan 18 (IANS): As the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination began on Saturday, doctors in West Bengal asked the people to continue maintaining the health protocols and hygiene to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

West Bengal's Health Services Director Ajay Chakraborty while monitoring the vaccination drive across the state said that inoculation is not the last and only resort, but people should follow all the necessary health protocols and hygiene already enforced in public life after the outbreak of the pandemic early last year.

While talking to the media, the official said that the vaccination drive was conducted smoothly on the first day at 202 government and five private health institutions across Bengal.

Thanking the scientists for developing the Covid-19 vaccine, the 86-year-old doctor Sukumar Mukherjee, who got vaccinated at the Neel Ratan Sarkar Hospital, said: "I am confident that the healthcare workers would come forward to take the vaccine for their protection against Covid-19. If people are scared of the side effects, I would say Covid-19 is a much bigger threat for the people."

Mukherjee, who was discharged from the hospital last week after chest infection treatment, has played a significant role in the Covid-19 management in Bengal and gave his medical advice to the patients as well.

Demanding the Covid-19 vaccination for all, Indian Medical Association (IMA) President Shantanu Sen said that vaccination-related side effects are mostly of mild nature.

Sen, also the Rajya Sabha member of the ruling Trinamool Congress, said that the vaccine doses are intended for boosting immunity against infectious disease.

"Do not miss the opportunity to be vaccinated," he said and observed that the real benefit of the inoculation programme lies in its amass vaccination' approach'.

Ten senior doctors of the Infectious Diseases and Beliaghata General Hospital have led from the front by sharing the first vial of the vaccine (each vial has 10 doses).

West Bengal health department has selected several senior doctors as the first beneficiaries to receive the Covishield dose during the rollout in Kolkata on Saturday.

Health officials considered that these renowned doctors, leading from the front, would boost in achieving the Covid-19 vaccination drive in the state a success.

Bengal's Minister of State for Labour Nirmal Maji, who himself a doctor, received the Covishield vaccine at the Kolkata Medical College and Hospital.

The Minister, who had contracted the infection earlier and subsequently recovered from the disease, said that he did not feel any after-effects after receiving the shots.

According to the health officials, around 21,000 beneficiaries were shortlisted earlier to provide the vaccine at 207 centres across West Bengal on Saturday, but around 16,500 health workers including few legislators obtained the vaccine.

The officials said that only four health workers in different vaccination centres felt minor discomfort after receiving the doses but they subsequently overcome the complications.

The Co-WIN portal, a digital platform created by the Centre to record the necessary vaccination data across India, did not work accurately for many hours after starting the vaccination process forcing the health workers to record the data manually.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee through videoconferencing monitored the process and shared her thoughts with the doctors, nurses, health workers.

Banerjee, also the Chief of the ruling Trinamool Congress, earlier complained that the Centre has allocated inadequate numbers of vaccines while the accusation was objected to by the BJP's state chief Dilip Ghosh.