The Greater Chennai Corporation plans to decongest the urban primary health centres (UPHCs) by launching mass vaccination drives for all age groups once ample COVID-19 vaccines are made available.
The civic body is working out Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to organise mass vaccination camps, and has identified venues for administering the jabs.
A senior official said in the coming months, once the vaccine supply becomes regular, mass vaccination camps at fixed spots would be launched, wherein persons eligible for vaccination could walk-in for registration and get the jabs administered. A list of 45 to 50 venues, comprising of schools and community halls all over the city, have been finalised, and their location will be mapped and posted on the website.
The civic official, sharing the finer details of the mass vaccination camp proposal to The Hindu, said each camp would have a minimum of five counters where all eligible persons from the age of 18 years could walk in, get registered, take a token and receive the vaccine.
The list of venues would be put up on the online portal along with the number of vaccines in stock for one to two days.
He said, “The civic body is planning to maintain a regular supply of both Covaxin and Covishield in each venue.”
The proposal to move out the vaccination drive from UPHCs is mainly to safeguard the patients, particularly pregnant women, visiting these centres, and also to help residents easily identify venues by making the locations familiar to them.
The civic official said the vaccines were currently administered to those above 45 years of age and those between 18 and 44 years, which includes food delivery executives, newspaper agents, courier delivery executives and transport workers.