Day 1: Hesitation, confusion keep many away

Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 16

On the first day of the Covid-19 vaccination drive, Himachal registered an average response from health care workers. Against the target of 2,499 on the first day, 1,536 health care workers turned up to take the jab. In terms of percentage, it works out to be 61.46 per cent. Lahaul-Spiti topped the list with 85.81 per cent vaccination, while Solan performed the worst with 31 per cent.

In Shimla district, of the total 351 people approved for vaccination, only 195 ( 55 per cent) turned up at the IGMC Hospital, DDU Hospital and a centre at Rampur. At the IGMC, 111 health workers were vaccinated against the target of 177, 34 at the DDU Hospital against approved 100 and 50 staffers at Rampur against 74. On a positive note, no case of major adverse effect following immunisation (AEFI) reported in any of the sites. Only three minor AEFI cases were reported in the RPGMC, Tanda, the Civil Hospital, Paonta Sahib and the MMU, Solan. They showed symptoms such as dizziness, nausea and anxiety but recovered after management, as per the protocol.

The low turnout could be blamed on hesitation and apprehension regarding vaccination, and confusion created by the late delivery of messages to the beneficiaries. “We were to vaccinate 100 people at the DDU Hospital but only 34 of them turned up. We even called up the beneficiaries, but they did not come on one pretext or the other,” said Chief Medical Officer Dr Surekha Chopra. “There is some initial reluctance but I am sure all of them will show up in the due course of time”.

Besides, quite a few could not get vaccinated because their names were missing from the list generated by the CoWIN portal. “The numbers would have been higher had there been no confusion because of the late delivery of messages. These are initial glitches. We expect the process to be smooth from Monday,” said Dr Saad Rizvi, nodal officer for vaccination at the IGMC Hospital.

In the morning, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur launched the drive at the IGMC Hospital. He urged people not to have any doubt or fear in their minds regarding safety and efficacy of the vaccine. He said that the government had constituted a state-level steering committee, state task force, district task forces and block task forces to monitor the administration of vaccine. He added that AEFI management training had been given to the session site vaccinators.

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