Coimbatore is among the top worst covid-hit districts in Tamil Nadu. Hospital beds are getting filled immediately after a patient is discharged. At such a tough time, close to 30 hotels in the city have partnered with hospitals and have turned into covid care centers.
Restaurants, caterers, mess runners are all making their contribution to support the district in its fight against the pandemic.
Noticing that the staff belonging to the hotelier fraternity are much vulnerable, and should get vaccinated, SKAL Club, Coimbatore – an association that comprises members across all verticals of the travel & tourism industry and hospitality sector, took up the initiative to vaccinate them with the support from sister organizations and government.
A two-day vaccination camp was held between Monday and Tuesday in The Grand Regent Hotel where more than 1000 members of the fraternity got vaccinated.
“ Arranging for vaccination of our hotelier fraternity is a huge task but we at SKAL were more than happy to organize this program. We received guidance from South India Hotel and Restaurant Association Southern Region (SIHRA) as they had undertaken a vaccination drive in Chennai, earlier. We approached the City Corporation, conveyed to them our plans for a vaccination camp for our fraternity members and appealed to them to provide vaccines”, A.Ramesh Chandrakumar, GM- Operations, The Grand Regent Hotel and Executive Committee member of SKAL Club Coimbatore said.
“As we have supported the Government when it needed our help in assisting the frontline warriors like Doctors, Paramedical staff in terms of food and lodging support, the administration was kind enough to consider our endeavours and granted us the vaccines free of cost. On Sunday, the City Corporation granted us the approval to hold the vaccination drive.”
“We partnered with Coimbatore Boarding & Lodging Owners Association (CBLOA), and they helped us get the word out to even more people. The Management of The Grand Regent Hotel was kind enough to immediately offer the premises to hold this vaccination drive.”
“2 doctors and 4 trained nurses from the Government Hospital were deputed by the City Corporation to administer the vaccines. After collecting all the details of the members, their Aadhar Data, organization name etc., and filing it online, the vaccine (covishield) was administered. No vaccine was wasted during the camp”.
“Hospitality Staff who would come in close contact with guests like waiters, housekeepers and other executives were given their first doses. On Monday, 511 people received the shots and on Tuesday 582 received, totalling it to 1093. There are more than 10,000 staff in the hospitality sector in Coimbatore and we consider this a very good start.”
“President Charles Fabian, Secretary Arun, Treasurer Ganesh, Prem Kanna, Executive Committee Member and Sk. Gugan, PR Director of SKAL Club Coimbatore and Siva Kumar, President, CBLOA guided our members and volunteers to organize the camp adhering to all covid-appropriate behaviours, and make it a productive one.”
“The response was overwhelming and we are sure that if we could get government’s support in the coming weeks, we can vaccinate more members and make Covai Hospitality sector well protected against Covid-19” A.Ramesh said.