KOLKATA: The potential receivers of the Covid-19
vaccine were surprised to get personalized calls from hospitals, instead of a
system-generated text on the time and venue of the
immunization drive on Saturday. The officials called up the healthcare workers at their establishments on Friday, congratulating them and notifying them about their schedule.
From Saturday, 59,984 healthcare workers will receive the first dose of
Covishield at hospitals and health centres across the state. The first batch, comprising doctors, nurses, Group D staff and ambulance drivers, started receiving calls from their hospitals on Friday afternoon, alerting them about their selection for the first day of the immunization drive, and the time and venue for the exercise. “I had expected a computerised text, informing me about the time and venue for the vaccine. But it was much more comforting when I heard a familiar voice on the other side of the line, asking me to report to the academic building auditorium of our
hospital at noon, with the photo ID proofs for verification. I am grateful to the government and the hospital authorities for selecting me as one of the first few to get the first dose of vaccine,” said Hironmoy Roy, associate professor, department of anatomy at SSKM Hospital.
Sanjib Bandyopadhyay, a community medicine specialist at ID Hospital in Beliaghata, who has been working closely with Covid patients throughout the pandemic, said he was grateful to be among the first set of vaccine beneficiaries. “We have been waiting for this vaccine for months. I am happy to be one of the 10 recipients of the first Covishield vial to be opened at our hospital on Saturday, leading from the front so that others come forward to take the vaccine,” said Bandyopadhyay, in charge of post-Covid follow-up clinic at the hospital.
There were reportedly two reasons for the personalized calls: first, an alleged glitch in the Co-WIN system that delayed the delivery of the text messages and secondly, the authorities did not want to take any chance with any dropout on the very first day of the immunization programme. So, officials were told to personally call up the beneficiaries from the list and ensure they turned up for the shot on Saturday. Hospital authorities in charge of making the calls said they received the last-minute instruction only on Friday morning. “Going by the earlier plan, the beneficiaries were to be alerted by the Co-WIN system that would have selected random candidates from the uploaded data. But on Friday, we were asked to make the calls ourselves and then, send the list of confirmed candidates to the state health department. We had a busy day as it also involved convincing some of the beneficiaries, who were still in two minds, to attend the Saturday session,” said the medical superintendent of a government hospital in Kolkata.
The calls are likely to smooth the process as a number of healthcare workers, either off duty or on vacation, expressed their inability to be present and sought a different date. “I received a call around afternoon, asking me to report for the first vaccine dose on Saturday afternoon. I told them I was currently out of town but I would be back at the hospital in four days. I have requested to be provided a slot around that time, if possible,” said Akashleena Pal, a nurse with the paediatric medicine department at Medical College and Hospital (MCH).
Anupam Das, senior medicine registrar at AMRI Dhakuria, considers himself lucky to have not contracted the novel coronavirus till now. But he said he was glad he would no longer have to depend only on luck. “Now that the vaccine is here, I hope the trying times will be over soon. I am excited and happy to be one of the first beneficiaries of the vaccine the entire world has been hoping for,” said Das, among the first 100 beneficiaries at AMRI Dhakuria, one of the three private hospitals allowed to have a vaccination centre from Saturday. The hospital selected its beneficiaries alphabetically, Das added.