UDUPI: Unfazed by apparent reluctance of frontline health workers to take the vaccine, the district health and family welfare department is gearing up to receive a fresh batch of 5,000 vials of Covishield vaccine on Tuesday. Out of the first batch of 23,000 vials of the vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India that the department received for the first phase, it has used 18,000 doses and is left with 5,000 doses of the vaccine.
District health and family welfare officer Dr Sudhir Chandra Sooda told TOI that the fresh batch of vials should be enough for the on-going second phase of the vaccination programme launched on Monday. “The existing and fresh stocks will help us cover the remaining beneficiaries from phase I and the fresh 4,040 beneficiaries identified for phase II,” Dr Sooda said adding DK and Udupi will receive this fresh batch of vials together.
On reasons for the vaccination programme that has seen 60% success as on date, Dr Sooda said it is primarily due to reluctance of anganwadi workers to receive the vaccine shot. “We are finding some resistance in this section of our frontline health workers,” he said, adding efforts are on at various levels including the child development project officer to convince them on the usefulness of the vaccine given their exposure to society at large.
“We are not insisting that lactating women, those in the family way and those planning to conceive, receive this vaccine,” Dr Sooda said. Fear of injection is one of the primary reasons for low off take of the programme among women frontline health workers, he said. Hearsay about aftereffects of the vaccine, media reports of adverse events following immunisation(AEFI) cases too has tipped the scales against the largest vaccination drive, he added.