Bengaluru construction workers to be vaccinated against Covid-19 from today

31,000 labourers in the city are not yet vaccinated

Starting with the construction workers at the Bengaluru International Airport, the Labour Department has identified 135 construction sites and labour colonies across the city where vaccination for labourers will begin from Friday by private hospitals at no cost to the labourers or loss of the day’s wages.

This is happening in an effort to utilise the state’s private quota of vaccine doses half of which is going unutilised every month as private hospitals are no longer buying them in the backdrop of decreased demand for paid vaccination.

The department is buying vaccines under the private quota with construction workers’ welfare funds and asking private hospitals to administer them by conducting camps at their worksites and respective colonies.

CORONAVIRUS SPECIAL COVERAGE ONLY ON DH

Around 31,000 labourers in Bengaluru are not yet vaccinated. State-wide 26 lakh workers are registered with the construction welfare board. Hospital chains, like Blossom Hospital and Apollo Medskill, will undertake vaccination in eight districts each.

Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (PHANA) president Dr H M Prasanna said, “The inauguration will be from the airport on Friday. In August, seven lakh doses were unutilised in the private vaccine quota of the state. In September, the state’s private sector has an allocation of 15 lakh doses.

“We’ve got an order of two lakh doses from the Labour Department but it hasn’t been paid for. We’ve made it clear that unless payment is done, we can’t start vaccination. For Friday’s drive, we will utilise the 50,000 doses already available with PHANA.”

“Once the vaccine cost is paid for, we can place an order for more doses which we expect to be supplied in a week. Sites have been identified in six zones of Bengaluru which the chief labour officer of the zone is supervising.”

Medical director of Blossom Multispecialty Hospital in Naganathapura, Chandan Dash, told DH, “We have been asked to vaccinate workers in Chitradurga, Davangere, Chikkamagaluru, Koppal, Gadag, Bagalkot, Belagavi, and Kalaburagi with two lakh doses, with 25,000 doses allocated for each district. This is as per the work order we’ve received.”

“We will be given 50% of the vaccine procurement cost for now. In each district, ten locations have been zeroed in by the labour inspector. Around 2,500 jabs will be given at one location every day. In ten days, we will complete giving 25,000 doses. Each district has more than one lakh workers.”

While the Covishield vaccine cost is Rs 630, the administration charge is Rs. 150. In each district, two modified ‘smart’ buses equipped with data entry operators, computers/WiFi along with vaccine storage facilities are being sent for vaccine outreach camps.