Gurgaon: The health department organised a vaccination drive at Ambience Mall and Plaza Mall near MG Road metro station on Sunday. While 103 shoppers were inoculated at Ambience Mall, 105 visitors took the jab at Plaza.
Officials said more such session sites would be organised in malls and other public places on weekends, when the footfall is high. In the coming weeks, the health department is planning vaccination drives at Gurgaon railway station and Sadar Bazar bus depot. “On Monday, we will set up camps in banks along Golf Course Road. We will be carrying out such drives in malls and near metro stations every weekend. Five vaccine officers, apart from doctors, paramedics and ambulance drivers, would be deployed at each of these sites,” said Virender Yadav, the chief medical officer of Gurgaon. At these camps, people would also be told about the importance of following Covid safety protocols and other such information about the virus.
The first day of the vaccine camps received an encouraging response at both the malls. “As many as 103 people got themselves vaccinated at Ambience Mall today. We have been supporting the government in this initiative. Earlier, such a session site had been organised on the office premises,” said Vijay Aima, vice-president of Ambience Group.
At Plaza Mall, 105 people were inoculated. Some of the shoppers were in for a shock when officials at the camp asked them to take the vaccine shot. “I took the first dose on my birthday. It was a memorable experience. All of us have been dealing with the virus for more than a year now,” said Sanjay Gupta, who had come to shop with his wife.
As part of the four-day tika utsav, the district aims at vaccinating 64,000 people between Sunday and Wednesday. Haryana has set itself a target of 6 lakh vaccinations till April 14. On Sunday, Gurgaon crossed its target of vaccinating 10,000 recipients.
Session sites opened at 8am and the vaccinations continued till 8pm.
To ensure maximum coverage of those aged 45 and above, rosters have been prepared on the basis of sectors, villages and mohallas.
“The plan is to vaccinate 20,000 people on Monday, another 20,000 on Tuesday and 14,000 on Wednesday. We achieved 101% of our first day target of the tika utsav. In total, we vaccinated 10,166 recipients on Sunday,” Yadav said.
As many as 115 session sites were set up across the city on Sunday — 60 at government facilities and 55 at private hospitals. Around 4.3 lakh people in the district are eligible for getting the jabs. So far, Gurgaon has vaccinated 2.5 lakh recipients.