Indore:
The health department has received a very poor response from the frontline workers on the first round of the second phase of vaccination on Monday.
Only 19 per cent of the targeted frontline workers including cops, IMC employees, administrative employees, and others appeared for getting vaccinated.
According to in-charge chief medical and health officer Dr Purnima Gadaria, “We had the target of vaccinating 8,600 beneficiaries but we could vaccinate only 1,651 beneficiaries in 58 sessions.”
She said that the department will review the facilities and will appeal to the frontline workers to come forward for getting vaccinated.
“There are various reasons for the low number of vaccinations but many beneficiaries didn’t come to the vaccination site without a genuine reason. We will also request the senior officials of concerned departments to motivate the beneficiaries for the same,” health officials said.
Health department could vaccinate only 500 beneficiaries till 1 pm and others could be vaccinated only after repeated calls were made to them.
Meanwhile, district immunization officer Dr Tarun Gupta said, “Beneficiaries who were called for vaccination will not be given a chance again.” He said that they didn’t get any case of after-effects following immunisation.
Multiple beneficiaries registered on same number
One of the major reasons for beneficiaries not coming to the centres is that many of them didn’t get messages on time.
“Many of the beneficiaries were registered with the same number due to which they didn’t receive the message but only one whose number was registered. We will try to rectify the problem to avoid such miscommunication. However, beneficiaries were registered only by their department and not by health workers,” officials said.
“I will also get the vaccine dose at the earliest and will ask the cops to get the vaccination on their turn. Our vaccines are safe and our team is excited to get the jab, said Harinarayanachari Mishra, Inspector General of Police (Indore Zone)
Health department called beneficiaries but in vain
After seeing a poor response from the frontline workers, health department officials had asked the employees and health workers to call the beneficiaries to reach the vaccination centres.
However, even calling couldn’t help in increasing the number as most of the beneficiaries promised to reach the vaccination site but didn’t appear.
Beneficiaries had to wait to avoid wasting of vaccine
Large number of beneficiaries had to wait for getting the vaccine as health officials were trying to open the vial only after getting 20 beneficiaries to avoid wasting the vaccine.
Due to waiting for 20 people, a large number of people waited at the centres for over 1 hour. However, most of the centres didn’t get 20 beneficiaries and vaccines got wasted.
The immunisation officer said that they send the beneficiaries to another centres to complete the lot and avoid wasting the vaccine.
Consent form compulsory for COVAXIN
Amid low number of vaccinations on Monday, health officials also took consent from the beneficiaries before giving them the jab.
Immunisation officer Dr Tarun Gupta said, “Yes, giving consent before vaccination is compulsory for those getting COVAXIN. The process is the same across the country and followed in Indore as well.”
On the question of no consent form for COVISHIELD, he said, “We have received the instruction from the government for the same and we are following the guidelines.”
The consent form for COVAXIN also includes the columns for reporting the daily health status of the beneficiary seven days along with other demographic information and history of health. Details about the vaccine’s manufacturer and other FAQs were also attached with the consent form.