Vanishing hesitancy, walk-in, free vaccines: mantra for more jabs, say top districts with high coverage

Several districts have increased daily vaccinations to record levels

Districts struggling with erratic supply of vaccines and paltry vaccination coverage received a shot in the arm by Monday's 'Maha Lasika Abhiyana', an aggressive vaccination drive where doses were supplied to match the district's vaccination potential.

Belagavi district officials who administered 86,239 doses till 9.14 pm on Monday alone said the fear of the second wave that had ravaged the State had brought more people to the camps.

"Previously, even when we had more than a lakh dose in hand, people did not come forward. Now vaccine hesitancy has vanished. We don't need to mobilise them anymore," said Belagavi District Health Officer Dr Shashikant Muniyal.

There are 234 vaccination centres in Belagavi and 600 vaccinators. Officially, there are 12 private vaccination centres in the district. "We have administered more than 1,01,528 doses including in the peripheral areas. We're still updating data on Co-WIN as sub centres in villages have no good internet access. The vaccine supply was good. So we planned the drive in taluks, villages, rural and urban areas. Involvement of elected members also helped. Many volunteers also helped.

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Pre-registration wasn't required and people could walk-in with the government id proofs. Although, pre-registration helps in organising the session. Local NGOs helped in human resources too. By 5.30 we administered the entire stock of 1.2 lakh," he said.

Ballari district officials administered 64,406 doses. District Health Officer Dr HL Janardhan said they had targeted 70,000 beneficiaries to be inoculated in 247 sites in all eight taluks. "Planning to deploy more than one team of vaccinators for vaccination made a difference. Adequate supply of vaccines, inter-departmental involvement, taluk and district administration and collective responsibility of tehsildars and elected representatives helped. If only the health department is involved, it becomes difficult to mobilise people," he said.

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Tumakuru district officials administered 51,552 vaccine doses and said the district had received 10,000 doses of Covaxin and 36,000 doses of Covishield apart from leftover doses from a previous consignment.

Dr M B Nagendrappa, district health officer, said, "We have already prepared an action plan for the future too. Fear due to the second wave played a role in people coming forward at 300 of our vaccination centres. Almost 600 people were engaged in vaccination today. Acceptance of vaccines has increased in both urban and rural areas."