MUMBAI: To aid the country’s inoculation drive, ICICI Lombard, one of India’s leading private general insurance companies, has taken the lead in launching a mega vaccination drive. This would enable 50,000 people from the underprivileged and lower income groups to get vaccinated, free of cost. It has held vaccination camps in the areas of Dharavi and Worli village in Mumbai to make this possible.
This is so far the largest drive that any organization has held in any location, in India.Dharavi, amongst Mumbai’s largest slum clusters, was previously a hotspot for Covid-19 infections and, as such, a major concern.
It is estimated that one million people live in Dharavi, which spans just 535 acres, and has a population density of 869,565 people per square mile. As such, inoculating this dense population becomes highly critical to the nation’s fight against Corona virus.
ICICI Lombard, in conjunction with Surana Sethia Hospital & Research Centre is conducting an end to end vaccination drive, right from registering the residents on CoWIN to administering the doses.
The vaccination drive, conducted in Jivan Hall and Prajapati Hall in Dharavi and adopting all social distancing measures, has successfully completed 8,948 vaccinations as on July 22, since launch on July 10’ 21. The Company expects to to complete all 50,000 vaccinations in the next 10-12 days. The drive consists of a team of over 60 people, including verifiers, nurses, doctors and paramedical staff.
On the initiative, Sanjeev Mantri, Executive Director, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company, said, “As COVID-19 continues to re-emerge in the form of new mutants, the only solution out of the crisis is to vaccinate the population at large. At ICICI Lombard, we have always focused on supporting consumers and society at large at the time of need, through our unique CSR initiatives. We are humbled and encouraged to have initiated this exercise of vaccinating the needy and thereby contributing to the nation’s vaccination efforts. We would like to thank the Government authorities, Hon’ble Mayor of Mumbai for supporting us in this endeavour. I would like to thank Dr. Surana and his team at Surana Hospitals to help us with the logistics for this activity.
Dr Prince D Surana, CEO, Surana Group of Hospitals, said, “We are happy to partner with ICICI Lombard for this significant cause. The idea of vaccinating over 50,000 people at Dharavi and Worli, especially the slum population, would help ease the load on the government. Secondly, the large scale vaccination drives will help develop immunity in the larger densely populated segment across Mumbai. We have received an overwhelming response from the beneficiaries on this initiative.”
As a responsible corporate citizen, ICICI Lombard truly demonstrates its brand ethos of ‘Nibhaye Vaade’ in diverse areas of influence by supporting national and socially impactful issues. The company has been at the forefront in its efforts to provide support amid the current pandemic. It has supplied 1,000 oxygen concentrators across Nagpur, Delhi and Lucknow, which have seen a high number of Covid positive cases. It also partnered with the Neotia group to establish a dedicated Covid care centre in New Town, West Bengal to treat those affected by Covid. With the demand for vaccination escalating, it is imperative to keep the momentum going and help inoculate a significant part of the population.