Drive-through vaccination facility kickstarts in Delhi's Pacific Mall

A shopping mall in west Delhi and a private hospital have jointly started a month-long drive-through vaccination facility where Covishield is being administered at Rs 780 per dose, according to a statement issued on Tuesday.The Union Health Ministry had announced on June 8 a price cap for the administration of COVID-19 vaccines in private facilities.

A shopping mall in west Delhi and a private hospital have jointly started a month-long drive-through vaccination facility where Covishield is being administered at Rs 780 per dose, according to a statement issued on Tuesday.

The Union Health Ministry had announced on June 8 a price cap for the administration of COVID-19 vaccines in private facilities. The maximum price for Covaxin and Covishield has been fixed at Rs 1,410 and Rs 780 per dose respectively in private facilities.

Pacific Mall Tagore Garden and Sri Balaji Action Multi Speciality Hospital have started the drive-through vaccination facility.

''This makes Pacific Mall city's only drive through facility which is vaccinating Delhites at reduced price a week before the price capping guideline gets implemented across the nation. The drive was inaugurated by Kriti Garg, IAS, DM (West Delhi). More than 200 people got the jabs on the very first day,'' the statement said.

The drive-through centre was launched at a time when one such facility was shut down recently.

Delhi's first drive-through COVID-19 vaccination facility, which opened with much fanfare two weeks ago, was shut as the Centre's price cap for vaccines had made operation unviable, officials had said.

The drive-through centre at Vegas Mall in Dwarka, an initiative by the Delhi government and Aakash Healthcare Super Speciality Hospital, was inaugurated by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on May 26.

Earlier this month, Moolchand Medcity had launched an on-site drive-through vaccination against coronavirus and was administering Covaxin at Rs 1,800 per dose, making it the most expensive shot in the national capital till now.

The hospital ran out of Covaxin and once it gets supplies, it will re-examine the drive-through centre, its managing director Vibhu Talwar said.

''We have a non drive-through centre where Covaxin is being administered at the government rates. The number of people required to manage a drive-through is more. The average number of people required to manage a drive-through is 15-20, including the security guards, the support staff for advance billing, etc. Once we get the Covaxin supplies, we will re-examine the drive-through centre,'' he added.