District Collector of Chittorgarh in Rajasthan has held a special coronavirus vaccination drive for people of Muslim community. As per reports, this is done to tackle the vaccine hesitancy in the community.
The Congress-led Rajasthan government has been facing backlash over high vaccine hesitancy and vaccine wastage in the state. To add to it, the vaccine hesitancy in the Muslim community as per an ETV Bharat report is at an all-time high because of various misconceptions.
The District Collector Tarachand Meena of Chittorgarh along with former MLA Surendra Singh Jadawat had to call for a meeting with community representatives to bust the myths around vaccination and promote the inoculation drive.
Meena, in the meeting, highlighted the importance of the Covid-19 vaccine and encouraged the Muslim community to come forward for vaccination. It was also decided that special camps will be organized to strengthen the vaccination drive in the Muslim community and counter various misconceptions.
The representatives of the community extended their support and emphasized the need to bust misinformation to curb vaccine hesitancy. Post the meeting, the community representatives appealed to their community to come forward and get themselves vaccinated in the special camps.
The first camp will be organized in Chippa Basti followed by another at Kuttchi Basti. The District Collector also educated the representatives about the Covid-19 protocols, the need to wear masks and maintain social distancing at the vaccination camps.
He also urged the representatives to get inoculated first to send out a positive message and help build the confidence of the community.
Additionally, former MLA Jadawat announced that every family that gets vaccinated will be eligible for a health insurance of Rs. 5,00,000 under the Chief Minister Chiranjeevi Health Insurance Scheme.
No takers due to vaccine hesitancy
As per a Times of India report, health workers in several tribal villages reported that there were no takers for vaccinations due to misinformation against the Covid-19 vaccines. Several villages in Pratapgarh, Chittorgarh and Dungarpur recorded zero or few takers of vaccines posing a challenge for the district authorities.
Villages in Chittorgarh’s Chikarda, Sangesra, Chapakheri had kept the health team waiting for six hours from 9 am to 3 pm with no beneficiary going for the vaccination.
Vaccines buried and burnt in Rajasthan
We had reported earlier on how the Covid-19 vaccines were not only thrown in the garbage in Rajasthan but were also buried haphazardly in several hospitals. Hindi daily Bhaskar had reported last week that there has been rampant vaccine wastage in Rajasthan. They had collected over 500 vials with around 2500 doses still left in them. However, the state government has been denying wastage.
After Bhaskar’s report, the health minister of the state had threatened legal action against the Hindi Daily, after which the media house responded. They published a photograph of 500 vials with the batch number and expiry dates. Bhaskar said that its reporters had picked up the vials from dustbins of various vaccination centres in Rajasthan.
Hours after Dainik Bhaskar published its report posting a picture of the wasted vials to fact-check Rajasthan Health Minister’s claims of ‘misleading’ report, the minister responded. He alleged that the picture Dainik Bhaskar has posted to substantiate its claims is that of “expired and discarded” vaccines. He further claimed they had been kept in a yellow disposable bag according to the rules laid down by the Biomedical Waste Management rules of the Government of India.