RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Hun­dreds of peo­ple got their vac­ci­na­tions with­in 15 min­utes yes­ter­day, as Pro­man Lim­it­ed ex­e­cut­ed the third day of dri­ve-through mass vac­ci­na­tions at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um in Cou­va. 

De­spite hav­ing on­ly 25 vol­un­teers, the ini­tia­tive was laud­ed for its ef­fi­cien­cy and pro­fes­sion­al­ism, as it was rolled out seam­less­ly through­out the day. 

As news cir­cu­lat­ed on so­cial me­dia, peo­ple with­out ap­point­ments al­so vis­it­ed the site. These walk-ins were fa­cil­i­tat­ed in a sep­a­rate sec­tion while the dri­ve-through vac­ci­na­tions took place si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly.

For­mer head of the Na­tion­al Op­er­a­tions Cen­tre, Garvin Heer­ah, was al­so on hand to over­see op­er­a­tions. Peo­ple came from across the coun­try to be vac­ci­nat­ed.

Vidya Thomas, of Ari­ma, said, “This is ex­cel­lent ser­vice. I reg­is­tered for the vac­cine on­line and I got through. I am a teacher and my el­der­ly moth­er is bedrid­den, so I want­ed to get vac­ci­nat­ed.”

Vol­un­teer Dr Nathaniel Anoop said 570 vac­cines were giv­en on the first day, 1,100 on the sec­ond day and 1,000 were sched­uled for yes­ter­day.

He said the event was well co­or­di­nat­ed be­cause of the pro­fes­sion­al­ism and ef­fi­cien­cy of the vol­un­teers.

Brent Thomas and Re­nal­do Co­dring­ton, who were al­so vac­ci­nat­ed, said they were thank­ful for the kind­ness and pa­tience of the staff. Co­dring­ton said he was ner­vous at first but felt hap­py af­ter­wards, as he was out of the venue with­in 15 min­utes.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Kr­ishen Ramdeen, Cor­po­rate and Shared Ser­vices di­rec­tor at Pro­man Lim­it­ed, said the Min­istry of Health re­quest­ed as­sis­tance last week.

“With­in five days, we were able to set up and get the au­thor­i­ties to sup­port what is hap­pen­ing here. Right now, we are geared up to deal with 1,000 per­sons a day and based on our lo­gis­ti­cal ad­just­ments, we can han­dle 1,500 peo­ple with­out break­ing a sweat,” Ramdeen said.

He added, “This is about pro­fes­sion­al­ism, safe­ty and care. When you come through this site, it eas­es the anx­i­eties. For those who have a bit of hes­i­tan­cy, we are try­ing to ap­pease their fears and make them com­fort­able. The min­istry has been amaz­ing in over­see­ing this,” Ramdeen said.

Clients were giv­en wa­ter, dou­bles and meals. The dri­ve will con­tin­ue through­out this week.