Wipro expects one lakh Covid-19 vaccine doses by June for employees, dependents

Indian IT services major Wipro said on Wednesday that it expects to have access to one lakh vaccine doses by early June to inoculate its employees in India and their dependents against Covid-19.

The company said it has secured doses of three vaccines -- Serum Institute’s Covishield, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Russia’s Sputnik V, and will administer them at no charge to its employees and their dependents.

“Given the severity of the second wave of the pandemic, the importance of vaccination cannot be emphasised enough. Our objective is to ensure vaccination for all our employees at the earliest,” Wipro Limited said in a statement.


The company added that the vaccines will be administered at its campuses and at partner hospitals in 140 places across the country. Wipro said that it has partnered with top-tier hospitals and online healthcare platforms to make the vaccination drive possible.

The company, which has nearly two lakh employees, has partnered with Connect and Heal (CNH), an online-to-offline delivery platform that specialises in primary care and urgent response services, to bring vaccines to employees.

Indian IT firms are among the largest private employers in India. The top five IT services companies -- TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL and Tech Mahindra -- employ more than 12 lakh people, or a quarter of India’s 46 lakh tech workforce.

These companies have stepped up their efforts to vaccinate their employees ever since the government opened up vaccinations for all adults from May 1. Some are even offering reimbursements to employees and their dependents who get vaccinated on their own.

However, given the huge shortages of vaccines in India, which has prompted several states to suspend vaccinations of people aged 18 to 44, companies have begun forging partnerships with private hospitals to get their employees vaccinated first. Wipro, too, said that the vaccination drive was in addition to support it was already providing its employees to ensure they were vaccinated.