Residents in Hyderabad can now get the COVID-19 vaccine at their locality or neighbourhood thanks to the mobile vaccination drive by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Council (GHMC). As part of the initiative, GHMC has added 75 new mobile vans to vaccinate people above 18 years of age. The drive will be operational from 9 am to 4 pm. Residents can contact the GHMC helpline number — 040 21111111 — to give the locations and track the mobile van. The vaccine will be free of cost.

Incidentally, the mobile vaccine drive was launched in late June. GHMC had launched the initiative with 100 mobile vans at the time. Although the initiative started in a few areas under the GHMC limit, there was a shortage of vaccines, a staff member at the helpline centre told TNM. “Besides, not many people were aware of the initiative. Since yesterday (August 11), we have been receiving calls from the public, enquiring about the mobile van,” the staff said.

The helpline number will help residents track the van in their locality and the date when it will be accessible. These vaccine vans will be in addition to the vaccination centres across the city. View the list of vaccination centres under GHMC here. As of August 10, 1.17 crore people in Telangana have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccines. A total of 40 lakh people have been fully vaccinated.

A total of 69 people under GHMC areas tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on Thursday, August 12, which is the highest among other districts. In Telangana, 453 people tested positive in 24 hours. While three deaths due to COVID-19 have been officially reported in the state, 591 patients have recovered.

A total of 89,675 samples were tested, taking the total number of samples tested so far to 2,31,69,688.