Karnataka's rural areas beat urban centres in vaccinations

From July 17, a spike in vaccinations was seen in rural areas

In a welcome sign, more vaccine doses are being given in rural areas than urban areas in the state.

Data from the CoWIN portal shows though the graph for doses administered was higher for urban areas from July 9 to July 16. But from July 17, a spike was seen in rural areas. On July 17, 1.93 lakh doses were given in rural areas over 1.66 lakh in urban areas. Ever since, the graph has been on the higher side for rural areas.

Though 63% of vaccination centres are in villages, only 46% of the doses in Karnataka have been given in these centres between May 1 and June 23, the Union Health Ministry had said in an affidavit in the Supreme Court recently.

Panchayat Raj Principal Secretary Uma Mahadevan attributed this to multiple orientation programmes (conducted for all 6,008 gram panchayat taskforces) on Covid management, the importance of vaccination and Covid appropriate behaviour. There are over 92,000 local elected representatives who also aided in increased vaccine uptake.

The GP taskforces actively urge people to get vaccinated, arrange registration, and if necessary, even arrange transport to the vaccination centres (especially for the disabled and elderly), and support vaccination teams in all required ways.

Also read: Labour dept to buy vaccines under pvt quota for 25 lakh workers

“Local elected representatives have themselves taken the vaccine with strong visibility to dispel any fears among the rural public. Folk modes of communication like vaccination rangoli, street plays etc have also been used. This has greatly helped to reduce vaccine hesitancy except in isolated pockets. Even in adivasi Soliga settlements in Chamarajnagar, for example, people are coming for vaccination,” Mahadevan said.

Initially, people from urban areas may have been coming to villages for vaccination but not anymore, she said. “And especially after the second wave, people have realised the importance of vaccination,” she added. Dr Prashant NS, assistant director (research) and faculty, Institute of Public Health, Bengaluru, said rural vaccination coverage is 40% in the district.