Big vax day: More than 1 lakh take shots at 209 sites in Gurugram

GURUGRAM: More than 1 lakh people took jabs at the mega vaccination drive in the city, which was held across 209 centres — 190 government session sites and 19 private ones. At 1,04,178, Monday’s was the highest single-day inoculations in the city by far. Until now, the highest 1-day vaccinations was on February 8, when 31,902 people had taken jabs.
On Monday, the health department had set a target of vaccinating 30,000 people. But the huge rush of recipients at each site and availability of doses ensured the number crossed 1 lakh.
Both first and second doses of Covishield were administered during the mega drive.
What caused the rush of recipients was that no advance registration was required on Monday — a bottleneck that had led to people struggling to get slots on CoWin. Moreover, three special sites were set up at Khandsa Mandi, Labour Chowk and Sector 5 for daily wage labourers, who did not need to produce any photo ID or phone number for getting the vaccine (see city flap). A site set up in Rajeev Chowk for commercial drivers saw a huge turnout, with some lining up as early as 6.30am. These apart, five drive-throughs were also held.
Not just Gurugram, the state too crossed its target of 2.5 lakh inoculations on Monday. By evening, Haryana had vaccinated around 6.3 lakh people on a first come, first served basis.
At the government sites in Gurugram, a total of 87,555 people got vaccinated — 49,247 in urban areas and 38,308 in villages. Private facilities administered 16,623 doses. The top three session sites in number of inoculations were Bhondsi (5,594), Chanderlok (4,506) and Nathupur (3,720).
Gurugram, where the pace of vaccinations had been hit hard because of lack of doses over the past few weeks, came back strongly. Till now, it has administered 10,22,749 first doses and the health department hopes to cover the entire population in the next two months.
“We are aiming at giving at least the first dose to everyone. Today, our focus was on vulnerable groups as they might end up as super-spreaders if not vaccinated in time. Our medical officer created sessions for recipients without any phone number or photo ID. They were given an OPD card with a reference number that could be used for the second dose,” said Virender Yadav, the chief medical officer.
According to sources, most of the recipients on Monday were those who had failed to get slots on CoWin for days. At some of the sites, people started queuing up from 6am.
“I had tried booking slots earlier, but failed. This time, I did not have to register in advance,” said Rema Gupta, a resident of Sector 27 who took the jab at Polyclinic in Sector 31.
Commercial drivers who had lined up at Rajeev Chowk said the vaccine was crucial for them so that passengers felt safe and they could resume their businesses. Several auto-rickshaw owners said they would place banners on their three-wheelers announcing they had taken the shot.
Private facilities set up 19 camps in schools, residential complexes and workplaces. One of the biggest private vaccination sites was at The Shri Ram School, Aravali, at DLF Phase IV. The centre had the capacity to inoculate 1,000 people at a time.
“I logged in and got slots for Monday easily. Now, getting a slot is not that difficult,” said Pooja Mehta, a resident of MG Road.
“For the past one week, we have been giving free vaccines to those from the economically weaker sections of the society. We are getting a huge response from all sections. We have been spreading the word so that more and more people who cannot afford the vaccine can get the jab easily,” said Arpita Mukherjee, vice-president (operations) at Max Hospital in Gurugram.