India Covid crisis: Kolkata establishes drive-in vaccination camps

Mumbai - Drive-in vaccination camps launched as many people do not want to visit hospital to get jab

By Web report

Published: Thu 10 Jun 2021, 1:33 PM

Kolkata established drive-in vaccination camps on Wednesday, with Soumen Mitra, the police commissioner, flagging off 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.”

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The drive-through vaccination camp will be extended from Kolkata Maidan to two additional locations from Friday. The vaccines will be administered from 10am to 6pm.

Drive-in Covid vaccination camps becoming increasingly popular in India, though many cities are facing a massive rush of motorists wanting the jab. Such camps proved to be hugely popular in Gurugram near Delhi, with vehicles queuing up for nearly 3km for the vaccine. However, many went home unvaccinated as there were only 500 doses available.

A health worker inoculates an elderly man inside a police van in the Maidan area in Kolkata. Photo: AFP