Thane civic body sets up call centre to meet vaccination target

A team of 12 people work at the call centre and make daily calls to 1,800 registered beneficiaries to prepare them for vaccination the next day. These callers also counsel those who have apprehensions to come for the immunisation.

The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has set up a call centre to meet the daily immunisation target. A team of 12 people work at the call centre and make daily calls to 1,800 registered beneficiaries to prepare them for vaccination the next day. These callers also counsel those who have apprehensions to come for the immunisation. The civic body has also permitted walk-ins for registered healthcare and frontline workers. These measures have helped TMC to achieve a target of 97% immunisation, the highest in the district.

A medic gives a healthcare worker a shot of Covid-19 vaccine in Thane. (HT FILE)

The vaccination drive began on January 16 and by the first week of February, the city witnessed more than 100% immunisation with some centres going beyond the target set for the day. Gradually, the civic body also increased the number of vaccination centres to 12 and roped in private mid-level hospitals as well.

“We have set up a team of 12 people who focus on calling the registered beneficiaries and preparing them for the vaccination process for the next day. Each person from this team makes around 150 calls per day. These calls also help understand if any individual has any apprehensions regarding the vaccine. We also counsel them and create awareness related to the vaccination process. As the call centre helps in reaching out to almost 2,000 beneficiaries, we can expect around 1,000 to 1,500 people to turn out on a daily basis; which helps us reach our target,” said Dr Raju Murudkar, medical health officer, Thane.

With the start of the booster vaccination drive, the number of daily immunisation within Thane city has seen a dip. “In order to create awareness and ensure that the buzz related to the vaccines does not fade, we are urging senior officials to get vaccinated. This week, civic chief Vipin Sharma got vaccinated and two weeks ago commissioner of police Vivek Phansalkar got vaccinated. We are using various mediums to reach out to the public and highlight that the process does not have any major side effects,” added a senior health official from TMC.