PATNA: Though the overall Covid-19 vaccination rate in Bihar is hovering around 50%, individual state government-run hospitals are showing an upward trend with more and more healthcare workers coming forward to get the shots.
For instance, the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) on Saturday saw a 107% turnout. While 90 healthcare workers were registered on the Co-WIN portal to be vaccinated, an additional six persons volunteered, taking the figure to 96.
“Thankfully six beneficiaries, who were supposed to take the shot on another day, voluntarily came forward to get the vaccine on Saturday,” PMCH’s superintendent Dr Bimal Karak said.
He cited several reasons for this improvement, including the positive report on Covaxin appearing in reputed international journals like Lancet. Another factor, he said, was the coming forward of heads of hospitals, health department senior officials to take the vaccine which helped address the hesitancy among healthcare workers.
“Initially, we had a team to ensure that registered beneficiaries turn out for vaccination and over the first two days, we had to put efforts into bringing them. However, now they are coming on their own. We finished the entire vaccination drive by 4 pm on Saturday, which normally goes on till 7 pm,” Dr Karak said.
The Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS), too, reported improvement in the turnout for vaccination. Data shared by the district administration pegged the vaccination rate at IGIMS at 69% on Saturday, which was significantly more than the average turnout of 52% so far.
IGIMS’s superintendent Dr Manish Mandal said people are slowly getting confident about the vaccines. “The shots taken by senior officials of the health department in the past few days has also built confidence among other healthcare staff and workers,” he said.
Dr Mandal, who was scheduled to be vaccinated on January 30, also took the shot on Saturday. “Healthcare workers like trolley boys, sanitation workers and ward boys were a little confused. But now that they have seen doctors and officers taking the jab, they are now confident. I got myself vaccinated today to boost their confidence,” he said.
Even at some private hospitals, the flow has started to improve. The principal of the Madhubani Medical College and Hospital, Dr Rajiv Ranjan Prasad, said there were doubts in the minds of the beneficiaries, but now those have been cleared.
“Initially, false information also got viral, such as people with blood pressure or diabetes should not get vaccinated. But now they have seen many senior people with such ailments taking the vaccines,” said Dr Rajiv, adding positive reports in the media have also led to the improvement.
The IGIMS board of governors member Dr Sunil Singh said the demand for India-manufactured vaccines in the international market was another reason for growing people’s faith in the shots. “Covaxin has been supplied to Brazil. Also, a study published in Lancet has mentioned that Covaxin has no side effects. Yes, there is certain confusion so we have asked the government to advertise as to who all can take the vaccine.”