Residents of Old Age Homes and other Long Term Residential Care Facilities have to visit Vaccination Centres to get their shots. This is not safe for senior citizens who are vulnerable to COVID and other infections if they visit a hospital. Also, persons with Dementia would get severely disoriented and agitated at an unfamiliar location and in a crowd. We are requesting the Government of India to vaccinate this vulnerable group at their premises, or permit private hospitals to take up this crucial life-saving vaccination drive. 

1. There are over 2,00,000 elders at about 4000 long term elder care facilities and old age homes in India. Many residents residing in such homes live with comorbidities, dementia, mental disorders and are bedridden. They are at increased risk of developing more severe COVID-19 infection and die from it. Globally, about 1/3rd of deaths due to covid were from such care facilities. There aren’t only logistical challenges but also serious health concerns to such elders if they have to visit hospitals for vaccination. Since there are 2 shots required, this will be highly impossible.

2. Maintaining a cold chain could be a concern for the government to vaccinate elders at the premises of old age homes. But in our country, vaccines such as DPT, BCG, Measles, etc. which also need to be kept at the temperature of 2-8 degrees are administered successfully at village level by nurses. If this is possible, the same can be replicated for Covishield or Covaxin. Mobile vaccination units equipped with necessary cold storage system, pharmaceutical fridge and emergency medicines staffed with doctor and nurse can also be used to serve this purpose. Seeing their plight some private hospitals showed interest to vaccinate residents at their premises. But they could not do so as it's illegal in our country. We understand, in some places, private hospitals are already doing it.

3. In European and American countries, vaccination drives started from the premises of care homes as they were worst affected.

4. With the number of cases still increasing and the emergence of new variants, we don’t know how long it’ll take for the situation to normalise. Since such homes are based on community-dwelling, the opportunities for infection outbreaks are abundant and the consequences can be severe.

Stand by us as we petition to the Government of India to start a vaccination drive for residents of Old Age Homes and other Long Term Facilities as well as homes for persons with Dementia who are vulnerable to COVID and other medical conditions at their premises.