In a bid to step up COVID-19 vaccination rates in Bengaluru, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta flagged off six mobile COVID-19 vaccination vans in the city. The vans were provided by private donors under their corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds, the BBMP said in a statement. The vans were flagged off from the BBMP office.

The statement further added that the vaccination programme aims to “reach the unreached”, and will be used to vaccinate people in marginalised communities in the four zones under the BBMP – Dasarahalli, East, Mahadevapura and Bommanahalli. The special vans will go door-to-door to vaccinate people in these areas. The civic body also said that a detailed plan in this regard has been chalked out with health officers and medical officers in charge of the urban primary healthcare centres (UPHCs) in the four zones.

Each of the six vaccination vans will have a health worker to administer the vaccine, along with a data entry operator. The BBMP aims to inoculate about 50,000 eligible persons who are yet to be vaccinated, the statement said.

So far, 1,48,80,522 (over 1.48 crore) doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Bengaluru, according to the BBMP’s data. Of these, 83.03 lakh have received the first dose, while 65.77 lakh are inoculated with both doses. Apart from the special mobile vaccination vans, the civic body also has mega vaccination centres at the Dr BR Ambedkar Bhavan in Yelahanka and the Youngsters Kabaddi Club ground in Malleshwaram.

Earlier, the BBMP launched a ‘vaccine vehicle’ programme to aid the civic body’s door-to-door vaccination efforts. As part of this, around 80 two-wheelers and 16 mobile vaccination cars were flagged off on November 25, by BBMP chief Gaurav Gupta. Each BBMP zone was designated with eight two-wheelers and two mobile vaccination cars for the vaccination drive.