If all goes as planned with the civic body able to streamline the vaccination process, senior citizens will not have to wait for hours on end to get their shot. Starting Monday, there will be COVID-19 Vaccination Centres (CVC) in many more private hospitals in the city.
The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), which is monitoring and overseeing the administration of the vaccine in the city, is likely to set up session sites — where vaccines are administered — in 107 private hospitals with more than 100 beds. Another 50 hospitals with 50-100 beds will also be ready to administer the vaccine, apart from BBMP’s own 141 Primary Health Centres (PHC), 28 maternity and six referral hospitals and other government medical facilities. In all, vaccinations will be administered in nearly 300 healthcare institutions in the city.
On Friday, BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath met with the heads of various private hospitals that had evinced interest to have CVCs and explained the modalities and requirements, as per Centre’s guidelines.
The third phase of vaccination, covering those above 60 years and citizens between 45 and 59 years with comorbid conditions, began on March 1. On a trial basis, vaccinations for the target population were taken up in 24 healthcare facilities, including five government hospitals and colleges and 19 private hospitals. “We wanted to see how the portal behaves and if it throws up any problems or glitches,” said Mr. Prasad, and added that from 1,068 vaccinations on March 1, it has increased to 7,351 on March 4.
Till now, around 1.5 lakh healthcare and frontline workers had been vaccinated in the first and second phase. He said added there were requests seeking relaxation on the payment for the second dose of the vaccination. “We will bring this to the notice of the State government. The vaccine is being administered free of cost at government healthcare facilities,” he said.
He also said there were requests for vaccines to be administered at home for senior citizens and those who are bed-ridden. However, as per the Centre’s guidelines, the vaccine cannot be administered to people in their houses.
