South Africans had flu shots along with registered nurses delivered to their front doors in a health campaign powered by Uber on Wednesday.
The e-hailing service ran a one-day flu shot campaign in major cities‚ making the vaccine as easy to “order” as fast food using the Uber app.
It took a bit of patience to hail an UberWELLNESS vehicle in Cape Town once the service went live at 10am. But in less than two hours a nurse was skilfully administering flu shots to staff at a building in the CBD.
Uber ran the campaign in partnership with Discovery Health‚ Clicks and Dis-Chem in parts of Johannesburg‚ Pretoria‚ Cape Town‚ Durban and Port Elizabeth between 10am and 3pm.
“Due to the amazing response we received in the previous years we are excited to bring this service to our riders once again. We understand that our riders have busy lives and we always aim to offer them as much convenience as we can‚ whether it's catching a ride or ordering a meal‚ so why not beat the bug with Uber without having to leave your office or home‚” said Uber general manager for sub-Saharan Africa Alon Lits.
While the flu shots are free‚ for up to five people per visit‚ a R100 call out fee was charged for the service.
Uber was not able to confirm the number of requests for the service but did caution that demand was expected to be high.
“On the day demand will be high and as such riders are urged to be patient when requesting. Should riders be unable to request for the flu vaccination on the day‚ Discovery Health encourages riders to visit their closest healthcare provider or Clicks and Dis-Chem clinic to get their flu vaccination as soon as possible‚” said Uber.
DJ Dean Fuel made use of the service and shared his experience in a tweet.
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