Swiggy begins vaccination drive for delivery partners, frontline staff

Food delivery startup will enable quick and free vaccine access and cover loss of pay for the period the delivery partner spends in getting both the doses

As part of its commitment to cover vaccination for its entire delivery fleet, food delivery giant Swiggy has begun the Covid-19 vaccination drive in Bengaluru. The drive is for its delivery partners and frontline staff from its grocery delivery service Instamart and its brand kitchens in accordance with the vaccination guidelines of the government.

"Our delivery partners and frontline staff continue to assist consumers, especially through the recent movement restrictions. Swiggy has been advocating the need for them to get priority access to the vaccination,” said Vivek Sunder, COO, Swiggy. “The vaccination drive is a proactive step in ensuring their safety and also that of our consumers. Thousands of partners have already received their first dose and we are confident that a large portion of our fleet will participate and get themselves vaccinated in the coming weeks.”

Swiggy will enable quick and free vaccine access and cover the loss of pay for the period the delivery partner spends in getting both the doses. If partners choose to get vaccinated at a government facility, Swiggy will continue to cover the loss of pay for that period.

A few thousand delivery partners across age groups have already received the first dose of the vaccination. With the drives planned across all major cities, Swiggy aims to cover all of its delivery partners and frontline staff in the next few weeks.

Swiggy Delivery Partner at a Vaccination drive in Bangalore

All delivery partners and their families have free 24*7 access to doctors via telemedicine for doubts and queries related to vaccines, safety measures and early assessment. Additionally, Swiggy has also been working with authorities and health care partners to prioritise Covid-19 vaccine for delivery partners as part of the nation’s essential service providers.

Swiggy said it will soon notify users on the delivery partners’ vaccination status on the app.

Early this year, Swiggy said it is committed to vaccinating its delivery partners by covering 100 per cent of the vaccination cost for its entire fleet of active delivery partners against Covid-19. Present in around 500 cities, Swiggy has the country’s largest active delivery fleet with over 2,00,000 partners.

This month e-commerce company Flipkart received its first batch of vaccine supplies and it commenced Covid-19 vaccinations for its front-line workers in India. Another e-commerce major, Amazon is also hosting on-site vaccination events administered by licensed health care providers, at an initial set of its buildings in Delhi.