GCC holds vax drives at residential hubs

GCC holds vax drives at residential hubs

40,000 People Vaccinated In Over 450 Camps Held In Two days

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:20.05.2021 

Greater Chennai Corporation conducted 208 special vaccination camps on Tuesday and 250 on Wednesday and has vaccinated about 40,000 people through them. The civic body plans to expand vaccination drives further and vaccinate more than 35,000 people a day.

GCC wants to ensure that before Thursday, when vaccination for 18 years and above will open in the state, at least 80% of those above 45 years are vaccinated. The city has vaccinated about 60% of the 22 lakh people above the age of 45 years.

“I want to ensure that we are vaccinating more people every day and I have asked all the field support teams (FST) to ensure that more camps are held,” GCC commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi said.

Fever surveillance workers have been asked to collect data on vaccinations extensively, including names of people above 45 from all residential welfare associations. “The civic body is getting ready to vaccinate all starting Thursday. Before that, we want to meet the target of vaccinating more people in the other age groups and the only way to do that is to hold massive vaccination camps,” said a zonal official.

Residential associations such as FOMRRA (Federation of OMR Resident Associations) have been working with the civic body in this regard. On Wednesday, vaccination camps were organised at gated communities along OMR and those 45+, looking for either first dose or second dose of CoviShield, were vaccinated. “Senior citizens, people who are wheelchair-bound and those with complications that prevented them from visiting hospitals/PHCs greatly benefited from the drive. With the vaccination for those under 45 opening up in the next few days, FOMRRA hopes to organize more camps,” said Harsha Koda, the association’s cofounder.

Apart from this, the civic body has instructed officials from the zonal enforcement teams to ensure that no shop is open after 10am. Bedi is holding a review with all the zonal field support teams via video conferencing every day to ensure that they stay motivated. A total of 382 shops have been sealed from April 9 till May 18 and a fine of ₹1.6 crore has been collected.

“We also want to increase testing. This is a war to be won and we all need to work to ensure the rate of transmission is cut,” Bedi said on Wednesday.

A total of 15,137 fever camps have been held in the city from April 1 to May 17 this year and about 8.4 lakh people had attended them, a press release from GCC said.

MULTIPRONGED APPROACH: Greater Chennai Corporation held vaccination camps at various residential spots along OMR on Wednesday