Covid vaccination: Health officials feel drive to pick up pace soon
New Delhi: With registered beneficiaries not turning up in abundance for the vaccination drive against COVID-19, it seems the claims of the government to make it a grand success may fall flat as most states have started reporting a decline in the turnout for the exercise.
However, experts have opined that the beneficiaries, who are mainly healthcare workers, may not be fully "satisfied" over the claims of the government about safety and efficacy of both the vaccines — Covishield and Covaxin.
As per the Union Health ministry's data, a total of 3,81,305 beneficiaries have been vaccinated through 7,704 sessions in the first three days and no severe case of AEFI has been reported yet. On Monday alone, about 1.50 lakh beneficiaries have got the shot in 25 states.
"Individuals who have been selected for the vaccination are not fully 'convinced' with the fact that they are completely safe and effective and that may be the reason that they are not turning up for the inoculation despite getting registration messages on their mobile phones," experts said, adding that if the same trend continues, it would become a herculean task for the government to build confidence among the countrymen.
In contrast, officials in the Health ministry are of the view that it will take some time and people would start participating in the drive soon.
"On Day 1, above 2 lakh people were vaccinated, which is highest in the world, while on Day 2, the vaccination drive was conducted in only six states and over 17,000 beneficiaries were vaccinated," a Health ministry official said, adding that on Day 3, about 1.50 lakh healthcare workers were vaccinated in 25 state/UTs.
The official further maintained that vaccination is voluntary, so beneficiaries cannot be forced to get it done and the numbers would increase in the coming days.
After comparing the data of 25 common states/UTs in which vaccination was carried out on Day 1 and Day 3, 14 states have reported a decline in turnout while 11 have reported a higher turnout than its Day-1 count.
The states like Karnataka, Odisha and West Bengal have reported a significant increase in the turnout of beneficiaries for the vaccination on Monday. Karnataka recorded the highest number with 36,888 beneficiaries getting vaccinated followed by Odisha (22,579) and West Bengal wherein 11,588 beneficiaries got the shot on Monday in comparison to 9,730 vaccinations on the launch day.
States like Delhi, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, etc reported less turnout on Day 3 as in Delhi, a total of 4,319 healthcare workers, which is 53.3 per cent of those who are registered for the vaccination drive, turned up to get the jab on Day 1, which reduced to 3,111 on Monday. Similarly, Bihar reported a huge dip in the vaccination on Monday as the number of people turning up came down to 8,656 on Day 3 from 18,169 on Day 1. Also, Andhra Pradesh reported a huge reduction as only 9,758 people turned up on Monday against 18,412 beneficiaries on Day 1.
According to the Union Health ministry, 580 cases of AEFI have been reported so far and out of these, seven have required hospitalisation.
"Of the seven hospitalisations, three cases have been reported from Delhi, two have been discharged whereas one case reporting fainting is under observation. The reported case of AEFI in Uttarakhand is stable and under observation at AIIMS, Rishikesh, while in Chhattisgarh, one person is under observation," the ministry claimed, adding that of the two cases of AEFI in Karnataka are under observation.
A 46-year-old health worker died in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad district a day after receiving the Coronavirus vaccination, with the autopsy report attributing the death to "cardio-pulmonary disease", officials said on Monday.
The family of Mahipal, who was working as a ward boy in state-run Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, said he was not suffering from any ailment other than fever and cough, and blamed his death on vaccination.
However, the Uttar Pradesh government said the man died due to septicemic shock and cardiac arrest and the death was not related to the COVID-19 vaccination.
The second person to die was a 43-year-old man in Karnataka's Bellary. The government said he had died of cardio-pulmonary failure.
