Private hospitals to carry out vaccination drive daily till Jan 25

To expedite the Covid-19 vaccination drive in the district, the health department has decided to carry out vaccination every day till January 25 across 17 private hospitals in the city having a higher proportion of workforce as compared to the government facilities, where vaccination will take place for four days in a week.

The authorities had initially decided to vaccinate beneficiaries only thrice a week. The recent decision has been taken to expand the coverage of the Covid-19 vaccination. Along with increasing the number of days for vaccination drives, health workers registered on Co-WIN platform can also walk in on any day to get the Covid jab, confirmed the health officials.

In Gurugram, as many as 3,489 healthcare workers have been inoculated so far since the vaccine was launched on January 16. In the last two drives, the target was to cover 5,436 workers, out of which nearly 64% took the vaccine jab. Many of the beneficiaries did not turn up due to apprehensions or dropped out to analyse the initial reaction of others before taking the jab themselves. Even some primary front-line workers did not receive timely confirmation regarding the date and location for vaccination due to technical glitches in the Co-WIN platform, thereby missing their turn.

Officials said that the recent to expand the vaccination drive can lead to an increase in the footfall and help cover almost 37,000 registered healthcare workers for the first round of vaccination drive — which includes over 32,000 private healthcare staff members.

“In the government facilities, vaccination drive will be conducted on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. In private hospitals, on the other hand, vaccination will be carried out regularly till January 25 as they have higher number of workers. Further decision will be taken once their entire workforce is covered,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer.

Starting Thursday, vaccination will be held at 45 session sites, with 31 booths, across 17 hospitals and 14 government facilities. In all the sites, walk-ins for registered vaccine beneficiaries have also been granted after the modifications were made by the central government on the Co-WIN platform. Earlier, health workers were alloted specific slots for inoculation. Since many workers failed to turn up, their slots were wasted. The Co-WIN platform allows only those who are registered for a particular day to be inoculated. It lacked the function to add additional beneficiaries.

“With new modifications, any registered health workers can take the jab in their hospital without waiting for their time slot. Private hospitals will have to verify from their list of workers already registered on Co-WIN before giving the jab. If Co-WIN is operational, the data can be fed into the system directly or the entry can be done later within 24 hours,” said Yadav.

Confirming the development, Ritu Garg, zonal director, Fortis Hospital, said, “The hospital has the target to vaccinate 200 of its registered health workers every day. The walk-in is currently restricted for our hospital staff members, who are on the list of registered vaccine beneficiaries.”

Notably, health care set-ups like nursing homes or diagnostic centres falling within the vicinity of the big private hospitals are also included in the list of these private hospitals mapped as vaccination sites. “Five big hospitals having maximum beneficiaries have not been clubbed with other small health facilities. Workforce from small set-ups like labs or nursing homes are clubbed with other hospitals, who are scheduled for Friday as new vaccination sites will be mapped out,” said Dr MP Singh, district immunisation officer.