Surat (Gujarat) [India], July 1: July 1, i.e. today is CA Day. Chartered Accountants are mostly occupied with numbers and balance sheets as a part of their profession. But one Chartered Accountant in Surat is busy attending to calls of late. And most of the calls have nothing to do with his profession but are connected to a special campaign he has launched.
That campaign is Covid-19 vaccination. Surat-based CA Balkrishna Agrawal, along with Mr. Vinod Agrawal, has started the Shantam Covid Vaccination Centre where as many as 31,000 people have been administered the Covid-19 vaccines so far. Balkrishna says they aim to touch the 1 lakh mark in the coming months.
It was the feeling to do something for people that inspired Agrawal to take time out of his professional commitments and launch the vaccination centre.
“We started the vaccination centre on March 16, and in just 105 days, we have vaccinated more than 31,000 people so far. We started with a team of just four people, but more people joined the initiative, and today, we have more than 100 people who are volunteering with their efforts,†says Agrawal.
Agrawal said he is also happy to have helped in reducing vaccine hesitancy among the people.
“Many people, especially senior citizens, were found to be hesitant about the vaccine due to various myths and misconceptions. We cleared their doubts and convinced them that vaccination is the only solution to safeguard ourselves from the Coronavirus. It is extremely gratifying that our efforts have borne fruit. We used to vaccinate hardly 70-80 people a day, but after the second wave of cases in April, the number went to 300-400 and even more. We are falling short of vaccines now because of the rush. We aim to inoculate 1 lakh people at the centre before the third wave of the pandemic strikes,†he said further.
June 21, which is celebrated as World Yoga Day, marked a high for Agrawal and his team’s efforts, as they administered 3,300 vaccine doses at the centre on the day.
“The Covid-19 vaccines are safe and are being used the world over. We can win the battle against Coronavirus only if each one of us is vaccinated. It is our appeal to everyone to get vaccinated at the earliest,†he added.
