Private hospitals in the city are receiving hundreds of phone calls from parents of children in the 15-18 age group and family members of senior citizens, seeking details about Covid vaccination and booster doses.
Officials of the hospitals said most of the queries were on when bookings would start, the prices of doses and composition of the vaccines for minors.
The hospitals have been getting the calls since Sunday, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that children between 15 and 18 would be eligible for the Covid shot, and people aged 60 or older and having comorbidities would get booster doses.
“We will study the guideline (issued by the Centre on Monday) in detail and accordingly guide those who are calling,” said Pradip Tondon, the CEO of Belle Vue Clinic.
Tondon is calling up schools, asking them to prepare a list of students eligible for vaccination.
Medica Superspecialty Hospital and the RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences have received more than 150 calls each.
“Many people are calling up to enquire about the booster dose and also how to get their children vaccinated,” said an official of Medica.
“The calls are mostly about prices, composition of vaccines, whether the vaccines are same for minors as it was for adults and when bookings will start,” said R. Venkatesh, regional director, east, Narayana Health, which runs the RN Tagore hospital.
Many callers also wanted to know whether vaccination camps will be held at residential complexes.
“We have received the guideline and will explain it to the callers from Tuesday,” Venkatesh said.
Some parents are keen to get their children vaccinated because in most families they are the only ones left unvaccinated.
Chartered accountant Ritesh Vimal wants to get his son, who is in Class X, to be vaccinated “as soon as possible”.
“He will be exposed (Class X students have their board exams offline). So I want to get him vaccinated on a priority basis,” said Vimal.