BENGALURU: Volunteers from various organisations in the city are taking the lead to get as many residents as they can vaccinated by organising special camps. They are approaching private hospitals to provide vaccine doses and inoculate people as well as are coaxing people to come forward for the drives. Many residents, who were struggling to book slots on the CoWIN portal, are happy with this as it is a hassle-free option.
The Changemaker of Kanakpura Road has been organising vaccination drives for the last week and have so far managed to get over 4,650 people vaccinated, covering six wards. They have tied up with Fortis Hospitals, Kanya Diagnostics and Aster RV Hospital to carry out vaccination for 53 apartments and residents’ welfare associations.
The volunteers collect advance payments from the residents for the vaccine dose, and give it to the hospital. They set up camps, carry out data entry, verifying documents and give residents token numbers while also ensuring that Covid safety measures are followed.
Abdul Aleem, president, Kanakapura Road Apartments, Movement of Change (KARAMOC) pointed out that many have been struggling to get the vaccine and some were not even able to get their first dose as they couldn’t book the slots. “So, we decided to talk to the hospitals and arrange this drive. The hospitals only come forward for the drives if there are a large number of people. We arrange all the logistics and people just need to get vaccinated and go back,” he added.
Aleem’s organisation also arranges for permission letters so that residents can commute hassle-free to the vaccination site during the lockdown. Their goal is get over 10,000 residents vaccinated across their locality. And the next plan is to vaccinate the underprivileged.
At Bellandur, over 583 citizens were vaccinated on Saturday with the volunteers carrying out the drive.
“As many people are still hesitant to walk into PHCs or government hospitals and some not getting slots online, we decided to set up the drive. We set up the place and handled the crowd, and the hospital staff carried out the vaccination,” said Vishnu Prasad, member, Kasavanahalli Development Forum.
Tough private hospitals charge more for vaccination during such drives, residents are not complaining. The charge for a Covishield vaccine, which is available for Rs 850 at hospitals, is around Rs 1100-1200, while for Covaxin, available at Rs 1,250, it is Rs 1500.