Companies look into vaccinating employees

An alarming second wave of the pandemic may have prompted several companies to return to remote working, but many corporates, particularly manufacturers, are roping in private hospital chains to arrange vaccination camps at their premises and factories.Apollo Hospitals Group, Fortis Hospitals, Max Hospital, and Medica in Kolkata, among others, said they are in discussions with various companies to assist them in getting their employees vaccinated.“There’s a rush of requests to hold vaccination camps at offices,” said Manish Mattoo, zonal director at Fortis Hospitals in Bengaluru. “Earlier there would be one request a week, (however, after the government allowed vaccination at workplaces from April 11) in the first few days alone we saw over 30 requests,” he said.With the government opening up vaccination to all above 18 years of age from May 1, the trend is likely to pick up speed as companies will be in a position to vaccinate all their employees, though shortage of vaccines and lockdowns in some key states including Maharashtra and Delhi are key challenges, hospital officials and industry executives said. 82172763K Hariprasad, president at Apollo Hospitals Group, said the hospital chain has been receiving enquiries from corporates across the country. “We are in discussions with various corporates to assist them in getting their employees vaccinated in line with the government guidelines,” he said.Arpita Mukherjee, VP – operation at Max Hospital, Gurgaon, said it has organised 15 corporate vaccination camps and is seeing more requests coming in.Companies such as RPG Group, Lupin, Dalmia Bharat Group and Vedanta said they have been conducting vaccination camps at their factory premises over the last week.With lockdown imposed in some of the states such as Maharashtra and Delhi, many companies will wait for the curbs to be lifted before they hold vaccination camps in their office premises though vaccinations at factories continue.Dalmia Bharat Group’s chief HR officer Ajit Menon said the cement maker is conducting vaccination camps at all its manufacturing plants and sites. “We are in touch with hospitals for vaccination drives at our offices, which we will conduct over a 3-4-day period once the restrictions on movements are lifted in various places,” he said.S Venkatesh, group HR president at tyre, infrastructure and technology conglomerate RPG Group, said group companies have undertaken vaccination drive across their manufacturing plants.Drug maker Lupin has already vaccinated 80% of the eligible employees above the age of 45. “In all our manufacturing facilities where we have more than 200 people eligible for taking vaccines, we are requesting the government medical officers to set up vaccination booths,” said Yashwant Mahadik, global HR president at Lupin. “For our office employees, we have tieups with hospitals where employees can go and get vaccinated. Once the clampdowns are lifted in Mumbai, we will conduct camps in our office premises.”Madhu Srivastava, chief HR officer at Vedanta Group, said the mining and natural resources conglomerate’s Covid-19 task force is monitoring and promoting vaccination across the group, which has so far vaccinated over 5000 employees and their family members. “The announcement to cover the 18 plus population is a welcome move and will strengthen the health of our workforce,” she said.Hospitals send fully equipped ambulances, doctors, paramedics, nurses, other volunteers and a crash cart in case of any adverse incident to the workplace vaccination booths. “Some of these camps see over 100-150 people getting vaccinated at one go,” said Mattoo of Fortis.Some hospitals like Medica Superspeciality Hospital in Kolkata are looking to reduce in-hospital vaccination and focus on off-campus vaccination due to space crunch in hospitals amid a second wave.“When we started vaccination, Covid wasn’t raging,” said Gandharv Roy, chief operating officer of Medica. “Right now, space is at a premium. We are looking to scale back on-premise vaccination and move it off premises.”While there is vaccine shortage in some locations, hospitals said they are in talks with local authorities and that the supply is expected to improve soon. “The current information is that the vaccine supply will stabilise in a few days,” said Hariprasad of Apollo.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3xehGg4