Ggm: Spl drives for auto drivers, workers lead to record daily jabs

Gurugram: The district administration in Gurugram on Monday targeted its Covid vaccination drives at auto drivers, industrial workers, domestic workers, street vendors and shop owners, which led to the district administering a record 50,000 doses — 20,000 more than its target for the day.

With more than 9.3 lakh people having received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine, Gurugram is among those urban metropolises that have the highest vaccination coverage in the country.

On Monday the main priority of district officials was to inoculate a large number of industrial workers, auto drivers, domestic maids, street vendors, shop owners. At the Rajiv Chowk vaccination centre, there was a special camp for auto drivers in the city.

In the coming days, the Gurugram district administration plans to tie up with several industries and resident welfare associations (RWA) so that special arrangements can be made to vaccinate large numbers of working-class people — all in a bid to safely open up as much of the economy as possible.

Several industries and even multinational corporations in Gurugram are organising special vaccination drives for their employees and workers. Having started the process

earlier, the RWAs have also begun to organise several vaccination drives in their neighbourhoods.

Earlier, these processes were being conducted by collaborating with private hospitals but now there are also plans to hold several free camps so that a large number of people can get vaccinated.

Grievances were being shared about how a large set of working-class people were being left out of the vaccination drive, which in turn was also affecting their employment prospects.

According to officials of the health department here, there are currently 85,000 doses of Covid vaccines in government centres of the district, in addition to which private hospitals have their own stocks.

A few weeks ago when there was a huge shortage of COVID-19 vaccines especially for the 18-44 group, vaccinations for this age category were occurring in large numbers only at private hospitals in the city.

"We are on our way to administer over 10 lakh doses. In the coming days, we are going to be tying up with several RWA's and industries to make sure that more people get inoculated and the imminent fear of a possible third wave of COVID-19 wave gets negated," said a senior official from the health department.