Apollo readies for 1m Covid shots/d

Hospital group to deploy 10,000 personnel

With vaccine development work appearing to near completion sometime next year, and the government preparing to administering them to the people, Apollo Hospitals has set a target of administering one million Covid-19 vaccines daily.

The hospital chain will put to use its 19 medicine supply hubs with cold chain facilities in 70 hospitals to achieve the target. Apollo Hospitals has 400-plus clinics nationwide, 500 corporate health centres and 4,000 pharmacies.

All these will be put to use to create a massive capacity to administer the Covid-19 vaccines which are approved by the Centre.

Shobana Kamineni, executive vice-chairperson of the Apollo Group of Hospitals, said, “One of the major challenges will be the safe and orderly delivery of vaccine doses for a population of 1.3 billion Indians, especially the vulnerable. We are strengthening the vaccine cold chain and gearing up all Apollo facilities for efficient and fast administration with the highest safety standards for up to one million doses per day.” The group has identified 10,000 human resources who are being trained to administer the vaccine.

Dr K. Hari Prasad, president, Apollo Hospitals, said, “There are 1,000 doctors, 6,000 nurses and other staff whose services will be utilised. There are 3,000 nurses undergoing training. We have 12 nursing colleges across the country and there are many more staff who will be trained to meet the target.”

The vaccine is awaited and it is important to have infrastructure and also trained manpower to administer it.