Vaccine shots at home for Darj elderly, differently-abled likely

SNS, DARJEELING, 7 JUNE 21 : There is high quality news for people who are differently-abled and those above the age of 70 years and who are willing to be vaccinated against Covid-19. A non-profit organization, Darjeeling Initiative (DI), today said that it is working on a plan to have people belonging to these categories vaccinated right at their homes.

According to the DI, such a vaccination system would be started for Darjeeling at first, and later taken to other places of the Hills after getting feedback in the town.

"We are tying up with the Kolkata- based organization, Liver Foundation, for this and it is for people above 70 years of age and also those who have disabilities. There are discussions going on in writing with the Health Department in this regard. We can also say that this is in collaboration with the state government, as Liver Foundation is working in partnership with them all over West Bengal. So everything will be coming from Swastha Bhawan," DI member Ajoy Edwards (photo) said today.

"Why they chose us is because we have local reach here as we have already tied up with around 200 samaj (local committees) here, of which we have the data. The number of vaccination that will be done, however, will depend on the stock that the government has and on the data which we are already collecting from the different samaj of the number of such people," he added.

Mr Edwards maintained that the reason this section of the people were chosen was because they cannot walk and cannot wait for hours in queues. "Moreover, people in these groups are the most vulnerable," he said.

"We also have local partners like Hayden Hall which will provide support such as health workers and nurses. Apart from that, we will also be having vehicles to take them to houses. We are hoping that this will be through within this week and the hospital will provide training on things like uploading data, among other things, to volunteers," Mr Edwards said.

The DI has already been working with the Edward Foundation through their Project CARE (Critical Aid Response), through which they are providing medical equipment and other things related to Covid patients with stress laid on oxygen concentrators.