MCC to help residents of old-age homes get vaccinated

The Mysuru City Corporation has taken up the responsibility of helping senior citizens housed in various old-age homes get vaccinated if they are unable to visit the vaccination centres on their own.

Volunteers from the MCC would pick up them up and drop them back at their respective homes. This drive got off to a start on Tuesday and a few residents from an old-age home in Alanahalli got the shot.

MCC Commissioner Shilpa Nag, after launching the drive, said the MCC was ready to expand the free transport facility if more number of people come forward to get vaccinated.

The MCC took up this task after Minister in charge of Mysuru district S.T. Somashekar, at a recent meeting here, told the district officials to get all senior citizens vaccinated by the end of this month. Mysuru district has 3.5 lakh senior citizens and nearly 65,000 had taken the shot since the third phase of vaccination began on March 1. Some government staff had been tasked to vaccinate at least 10 senior citizens daily for covering the target.

On the call from MCC, the JSS Mahavidyapeeta gave a vehicle to carry the residents to the vaccination centres.

The MCC is planning to cover nearly 50 per cent of the residents of old age homes by the end of this month. Accordingly, it has collected details of the old-age homes operated here and each one of them would be assigned a date for visiting the vaccination site after collecting the mandatory details for registration and hassle-free immunisation.

With the sharp rise in COVID-19 cases, the government has told the districts to step up vaccination and cover as many senior citizens as possible before March 31. From April 1 onwards, people aged above 45 years would be given vaccination, and accordingly more number of hospitals had been permitted for carrying out the vaccination.

The district hospital and trauma care centre on KRS Road are among the major centres where the vaccination can be taken on all days of the week besides the primary and urban health care centres where the jab would be given on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday for free.

The old-age homes had been told to call the MCC control room if they want free transport facility.