We need more mobile vaccination centres

This picture has been used for representational purpose

It was good to read about a mobile van in Vasai, actually going to an area to facilitate vaccination for locals. The van, a report in this paper read, reached the most vulnerable section, the elderly and differently-abled.

Several people in the report spoke out about how they were in absolute despair that they had not been able to book a slot on the CoWin App. This came as a real boon and it was as if a tonne of weight had lifted off their shoulders.

It is important that we reach out to the most frail and helpless for the vaccine. The state has to follow a simple diktat if they want to see success in their vaccination drive. If the people for genuine reasons cannot go and get the vaccine, then the vaccine must come to them.

Mobile centres is one way to do this. Accessible centres and many of them, this time, with vaccines available is yet another.

One must remember that the elderly and the differently-abled are dependent on somebody taking them to vaccination centres. At times, these people may not have anybody to take them there or even book their slots on CoWin.

A lot of older people are intimidated by technology. It is not second nature to them, like it is with youngsters. They have not grown up with gizmos and gadgets as part of their lives.

They need help and booking slots etc. may very well be beyond them not because they are uneducated but that they have not grown up with tech at their fingertips.

It is also notable that so many who received the vaccine via the mobile van spoke about how they were hesitant or superstitious earlier, misinformed about the vaccine, but now, their fears have fallen away. More power to vaccine accessibility.