Suraj wrote:Good information RajD. We need more people giving such in-depth commentary of on the ground experiences.
I would like to share my experience. Hope the large post will be excused.
Got my elderly relative vaccinated at Dahisar Jumbo Vaccination centre, Mumbai North, 2 days ago. She is 76 years old and had pacemaker implantation 2 years back. She also has mild diabetes, which is under control.
I had helped her to register, using my mobile, on the arogya setu app nearly 2 weeks ago but found that there were no slots for nearly 3 weeks at any nearby centre (within 1 km radius). Her fellow housing society members suggested to book at the jumbo covid centre in the next suburb (about 2.5 kms away), as they had done the same and their experience was quite good. Hence i decided to go ahead accordingly and on 06th March I attempted booking at the Dahisar center. Nearest date available at the first center was 18th March and so booked it for the forenoon slot.
(I found later on that there were 10 sub-centers there in one location and one sub-center had bookings available on 12th March). Also a few days later i got an intimation that private hospitals were also open for vaccinations. I checked in the app and found a private hospital about 0.5 kms away but the earliest available date was 05th April. My aunt however told me not to do any earlier bookings)
So on 18th March (thursday) i booked a cab and took her to the center at around 8.55 AM (got delayed in traffic due to usual mumbai roadwork bottlenecks). On arrival i saw that there were two separate queues, for registered and for non-registered, with mumbai police and contracted security maintaining order. Very polite and calm people. There were about 200 persons (almost 95% senior citizens) in the non-registered queue and just about 12 (including me and my relative) in the registered queue. The queue system was the serpentine type (seen at large temples), there was canopy on top to protect from the sun and along the rails there were wooden planks kept so that the oldies could sit while waiting in the queue. All in all i was pretty impressed at how basic but functional it was. There were also some attendants (male and females) who were assisting the oldies, giving them sanitizer, assisting with wheelchairs, helping them get their Aadhaar documentation ready before entering the centre etc
Around 9.05 AM the doors of the center were opened and some 20 persons from each queue were taken inside at a time. The guards insisted only the ones getting the jab were to go inside, while relatives had to wait outside. Since my relative was not-so tech friendly and she couldn't explain her medical reports clearly to the doctor inside and she was getting flustered, i requested the security person to let me go inside and he let me do so without much fuss. Inside there were good seating arrangements (plastic chairs, big pedestal fans, water coolers etc). We were asked to sit in the chairs and were given a form which had two parts - one where we had to detail out medical conditions, whether undergone surgery etc. The second was the one where they would put the registration number, name and time of vaccine, name of doctor/attendant administering the dose etc. After filling the details which took about 5 minutes we were guided to the seat for administering of the vaccine. We were not given a choice, it was the doctor who checked the medical details and decided which one to be given (my relative was given the Covishield vaccine).
Administering the vaccine injection took barely 2-3 minutes. The doctor and the attendant were both were polite and professional and helped soothe my aunts concerns by reminding her of how many times she must have taken vaccines for herself and her kids. They just asked verbally about her health condition and didn't ask to see her reports (i am not sure but partly i suspect it was so as to not alarm her). After she was given the jab we were asked to wait for half an hour at a separate waiting station which had many chairs and even beds in case anyone wanted to lie down. There were some AC rooms as well and i could see quite a few seniors making full use of the facilities..including posing for photographs
Anyway we were out within 30 minutes and back home in another half hour. She didn't have any effects as such at the center and i had arranged for a female relative to stay with her overnight in case she got any fever or body ache. But nothing of that sort happened and all she had was a mild, dull ache in the arm in which she had received the jab. She is all fine now and looking forward for the next dose in about 26 days. In fact so confident is she that she is telling me that she will go all by herself or with some other neighbor.
So that was my experience. What struck me most was the enthusiasm of the senior citizens. It was the younger people accompanying them who looked worried but the oldies, even those using walking sticks, wheel chairs etc were very calm and matter-of-fact. Another thing i noticed was the calm competency of the attendants at the centre and the security guards and cops. They were very careful in handling of the senior citizens and displayed very polite & helpful attitude. Full marks from my side. I hope the vaccination drive picks up exponentially and it goes smoothly for all. Thank you.