Homeless persons in Corporation shelters may soon get COVID jabs

“We have vaccinated most of the residents who are above 45 and possess Aadhaar cards. But, we could not inoculate several homeless persons as they do not have Aadhaar or any other identity card,” a Chennai Corporation official said.

The official added that the central government has recently instructed the state governments to inoculate all the homeless persons residing in night shelters. Based on the instruction, the civic body plans to vaccinate all the residents. Chennai Corporation maintains 55 night shelters across the city.

As per the data, there are as many as 374 homeless persons in the Chennai Corporation night shelters between the age of 19 and 45. Apart from them, 228 persons, who are between 45 and 60 years of age, and 156 persons above 60 had missed their vaccination for want of identity cards. “All of them will get their vaccines. Presently, more than 1,700 homeless persons reside in the night shelters,” the official said.

According to the official, several homeless persons, who were in the night shelters, left for their native districts following the pandemic. Meanwhile, the civic body identified eight COVID-19 infected persons who violated the home quarantine norms and collected Rs 16,000 from them as a penalty. “A total of 22 such complaints were received and after investigation penalties have been imposed against the eight persons,” a release said.