Give correct info, sign up for vax drive, hospitals told 

BENGALURU: Private hospitals wishing to be part of the Covid vaccine drive must be empanelled with either a Central or State insurance scheme and must ensure that they provide correct information while signing up.Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad made the above remarks on Friday during a meeting of 300 hospitals in the city. He said that hospitals must give the correct mobile phone number as the OTP for verifying access to the CoWIN portal will be sent to the registered mobile number. Failure to give the correct phone number will mean that the hospital will not be included for the vaccination drive.

From Monday, 141 primary health centres, 28 maternity hospitals, six referral hospitals, 107 hospitals with over 100 beds and 50 hospitals with less than 100 beds will also administer the vaccine. People will now be directed to the nearest vaccine centre and the wait-time will also come down, he said.

Prasad said that a master template is being created at the BBMP war room where information of vaccine centres, beneficiaries, vaccinators, supervisors, staff verifying data and others involved will be compiled and verified. The vaccine will be administered free of cost at government hospitals while private facilities will charge Rs 250 per jab (Rs 150 to be given to the government and the rest to be retained by private hospitals as service fee).

“Many hospitals have expressed interest in administering the vaccine. But before taking it up, they must set up appropriate cold chain infrastructure to store doses. Also, many citizens have requested that the second shot be available free of cost. This proposal has been placed before the government for approval,” the Commissioner said.