Over 2,000 elderly and differently-abled people get COVID-19 vaccine at home in Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad: More than 2,000 elderly and differently-abled people have so far received their COVID-19 vaccine doses at home in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad city, as part of the local civic body’s special drive to achieve the target of 100 per cent inoculation, officials said on Sunday. Under its mega COVID-19 vaccination drive, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) on 7 October launched this special facility for those above the age of 50 years and differently-abled people aged 18 and above. “Till date, a total of 2,077 beneficiaries have availed the facility of getting their first or second doses of COVID-19 vaccine at their homes,” an AMC official said. He said so far, 2,536 such people have registered for the facility online or by calling on helpline numbers provided by the city civic body. “Anybody (from the categories specified above) who wants to get the vaccination against COVID-19 done at home can get registered online or on phone numbers provided by the AMC. The zonal health department will verify their registration and send a team of health officials to their houses on the date and time (between 9 am and 7 pm in a day) provided by the beneficiaries,” the official said. A majority of those who have so far availed the home vaccination facility are form the city’s west zone (758), followed by residents of the north-west zone (318), south-west (300), south (286), east (162), north (139) and central zone (114), he said. The city administration is making various efforts to achieve the target of 100 per cent vaccination through initiatives like this. To encourage people who were unwilling to get vaccinated, specially from slum areas, the civic body recently offered them one litre of edible oil and lucky draw schemes as incentives. Health department officials have also been deployed at bus stands to vaccinate commuters who are yet to get their jabs against the viral infection. The civic authority has also identified 21 community halls to carry out vaccination till 10 pm everyday, officials said. On Saturday, a total of 26,274 people received their first or second doses of vaccines in the city, as per the AMC. Gujarat on Saturday reported 24 new coronavirus infections, which raised the state’s case tally to 8,26,402, the health department earlier said. District-wise, Ahmedabad reported the highest nine new cases, Valsad five, Surat six, Navsari two, Junagadh and Kheda one case each. No new COVID-19-related fatality was reported in the state on Saturday and the death toll remained unchanged at 10,087, as per official data.