80 get vaccine on first day of camp in offices

A day after the Gurugram health department allowed companies to tie up with private hospitals to vaccinate their staff against Covid-19, 80 people were vaccinated at a camp in sector 37

A day after the Gurugram health department allowed companies to tie up with private hospitals to vaccinate their staff against Covid-19, 80 people were vaccinated at a camp in sector 37.

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The camp was held at Industrial Development Association (IDA), the first time it was held outside a government or private health care facility, and the beneficiaries were at least 45 years of age. Representatives of some of the major private hospitals said many multinational and industrial and corporate offices had approached them to vaccinate their staff and more camps are likely to be held from Friday.

“The response was good,” said Dr Sushila Kataria, head and director of the internal medicine department at Medanta Hospital, which conducted the camp at IDA. “Since it was the first day, a few registrations were delayed. From Friday onwards, the hospital will be setting up camps in at least one office every day and on April 5, centres will be set up in at least three offices. The schedule has been fixed till April 15 based on the requests from different corporates, especially in banking, telecom, oil and gas, and retail.”

“Corporates approached the hospital even before getting the go ahead for vaccination in offices. We were already administering doses to employees of various companies in our hospital during specific slot from noon till 3pm, especially during the lunch hours. But now, we will be catering to larger section of employees in different offices for longer,” said Dr Vritti Lumba, medical superintendent, Fortis Memorial Research Institute.

Lumba said they were in the process of finalising plans to set up camps in more companies. “All Covid-19 vaccination protocols will be followed to set up camp in offices to maintain social distancing,” said Lumba, without disclosing names of the companies.

Other big private hospital of the city, Max super specialty hospital has also been coordinating with companies like Powergrid, Indian Oil, ICICI bank, Panasonic India, Maruti Suzuki, Eicher and Quattro. “At least 10 companies have approached us till now. Many of them were interested in sharing the names of all their employees for pre-registration, which will help in streamlining the vaccination process at the site. From Friday onwards, we will be starting with single camp in one of the offices. Since, Gurugram is hub of corporate offices, this move will help in expediting vaccination,” said Arpita Mukherjee, vice president, operations, Max hospital.

Narayana Hospital, on the other hand, will hold the vaccination in a corporate from April 5 onwards. Dr Swadesh Kumar, consultant and head of emergency, Narayana Hospital, said, “On April 5, the hospital will be setting up a camp in one of the corporates near to the hospital. Based on the response, more vaccination centres will be set up simultaneously in other offices too.”