Kolkata, June 21: The vaccination drive in the city got a shot in the arm today with the inauguration of the Woodlands Vaccination Centre, the first standalone vaccination centre of the city, with a capacity to administer 1,000 Covid vaccinations a day and provisions to scale up the figure to 2,000.
The vaccination centre on Alipore Road, 200m from Woodlands Multispeciality Hospital, Kolkata, was inaugurated this morning by state Mr. Firhad Hakim, Minister, Transport and Housing departments, West Bengal Government along with Dr. Rupali Basu, Managing Director, Woodlands Multispeciality Hospital, Kolkata.
Lauding the “excellent” initiative, Mr. Firhad Hakim said Woodlands had taken the lead in setting up a standalone centre for vaccination close to the hospital and more private hospitals were likely to follow suit. “It was my dream to see a private player come up with such a Centre. Before the third wave of Covid hit us, in which we are told children could get infected, it is important that more and more people get vaccinated. If a child’s parents, other relatives and maids are all vaccinated, the lesser will be the chance of the child getting Covid. That is why more such centres are needed,” he said.
“Every single person in the country needs to get vaccinated as quickly as possible. Vaccination is currently the only potent weapon in our hands with which we can win the war with Covid. We at Woodlands Hospital planned this Vaccination Centre so that a larger number of people can get vaccinated, which is the need of the hour,” said Dr. Rupali Basu, Managing Director, Woodlands Multispeciality Hospital, Kolkata.
Also present at the inauguration were Mr. Binod Kumar, Commissioner, Kolkata Municipal Corporation, and Mr. Soumya Purkait, Joint Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of West Bengal.
Embracing the next level of safety precautions, the Woodlands Vaccination Centre would sport an automated temperature scanner — a contact-free automated device that checks an individual’s temperature — automatic shoe cover dispenser and an automated queue management system.
The centre will be open from 9am to 7pm Monday to Saturday and slots can be prebooked upon registration on the CoWIN app.
Woodlands has managed to slash the total amount of time one needs to get a jab by allowing digital payments. Upon registration and booking a slot at woodlands one can go to the link https://www.myhealthcare.co/mywoodlands/ and make a digital payment even before stepping outdoors. The move would especially benefit the elderly and infirm, who will not have to stand in the queue to make payments, or wait while someone else does it for them, upon reaching the vaccination centre.
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