AQiangsheng Taxi employee has his COVID-19 vaccination on Tuesday.

Over 14,000 taxi drivers in Shanghai are being encouraged to have COVID-19 vaccine.

The city’s major taxi companies said free vaccinations began on Tuesday.

QiangshengTaxi said 6,000 of its drivers will have been vaccinated by Friday.

CaoDingming, the company’s manager, was vaccinated on Tuesday.

“Vaccination can ensure better prevention and control of the pandemic,” saidCao.

Dazhong,HaiboandJinjiang, the other major taxi firms in the city, have also arranged vaccinations for their employees due to be complete before the Spring Festival.

Most drivers said they would respond to the government’s recent call for front-line workers to be vaccinated.

QiuZhiming, a driver withDazhongTaxi, is waiting for his vaccination.

“It takes about four hours to take it,”Qiu said. “For our fleet, only those with potential adverse reactions, such as allergies, do not agree.

“Now that the epidemic seems to being resurging a bit recently (inShijiazhuang,Hebei), I think it’s necessary to do it.”

AQiangsheng Taxi employee fills out a confirmation form for his COVID-19 vaccination.

The city’s major bus company,JiushiGroup, has also started vaccinations for its employees. Currently, almost 20,000 have applied for the vaccine, most of them front-line drivers.

Song Gang, a driver of Route 948, said: “The process feels like normal vaccinations. As part of a high-risk group, I think bus drivers should take responsibility for the general public.”

As of Monday, more than 600,000 people in Shanghai, mostly priority groups at a high risk, had received COVID-19 vaccines. No serious adverse reactions have been reported.