Covid-19: KDMC starts mobile vaccination drive in Kalyan-Dombivli

THANE: The Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) has launched a 'mobile vaccination' drive in the twin cities of Maharashtra's Thane district in a bid to encourage inoculation among the underprivileged and slum dwellers.
The drive was inaugurated by KDMC chief Vijay Suryavanshi on Wednesday.
Chief medical officer of KDMC, Dr Pratibha Panpatil told TOI that the civic body has asked its health centres to chalk out all the areas where eligible beneficiaries can benefit from the mobile vaccination drive.
"There are a lot of slum pockets in the cities, especially in Kalyan East and in Dombivli. These are high-risk spots due to their dense population and immunising them against the virus is important. But people here are sceptical of travelling to the vaccination centres and getting the jab, and so we decided to take the vaccines to them," Panpatil said.

She informed that two buses have been deployed by the civic body for this purpose. Beneficiaries will be administered the jab inside one bus and will be asked to wait for observation inside another.
"Today, the buses were parked near the Khadegolwali locality and a number of people were inoculated. Everyone above the age of 18 years is eligible for the vaccine. Every day, a specific number of vaccine doses from the total stock will be allocated for mobile vaccination," she shared.
"The entire process will be offline. Citizens have to just turn up with their Aadhaar cards," she added.
Only Covishield doses are being administered in the drive. It is scheduled to begin around 11 am every day and continue until stocks last.
Kalyan and Dombivli are two of the worst-hit cities due to Covid-19 in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). The civic body has also been facing an acute shortage of vaccines. Besides the mobile vaccination, the inoculation drive in the rest of the city was suspended on Wednesday due to the unavailability of sufficient doses.