Covid-19 in India: Drive-in vaccination camps getting popular

A lot of people do not want to visit hospitals to take vaccine shots for fear that they might catch the infection.

Drive-in vaccination camps for Covid-19 are getting popular in India, though many cities are facing a massive rush of motorists wanting a quick injection.

Kolkata was the latest to join the list of drive-in vaccination camps on Wednesday, with Soumen Mitra, the police commissioner, flagging of the camp at the East Bengal club approach road.

“Since the launch of the community vaccination programme, we have noticed that a lot of people do not want to visit hospitals to take vaccine shots for fear that they might catch the infection,” Rupak Barua, group CEO, Amri Hospitals, told the media.

“As we are not allowed to start door-to-door vaccination, we have been exploring other ways to reach out to more people for the jab. When we mooted a drive-by camp to Kolkata Police, commissioner Mitra supported the initiative enthusiastically”, he added.

The drive-by vaccination camp is being extended from Kolkata Maidan to two other places from Friday. The vaccines will be administered from 10:00am to 6:00pm.

A few days back, such camps proved to be hugely popular in Gurugram near Delhi, with vehicles queuing up for nearly three km, as people waited impatiently for the jab. But with a mere 500 doses, most never got vaccinated after waiting for long.

• India