Focus on low sero areas, set up more camps for bigger vax push, say experts

Gurgaon: To speed up Covid-19 vaccinations in Haryana, the state government should aggressively inoculate people in areas reporting low sero positivity as they are not yet fully exposed to the virus and are at risk of infection in the coming days, epidemiologists and health experts have said.
The experts agreed that focus should be on administering at least one dose to the population at the earliest. Dr Suneela Garg, director professor and head of community medicine at Maulana Azad Medical College and a member of The Lancet’s Covid commission, said: “There are areas which have not yet been much exposed to the virus and the government should look at these areas first.”
However, vaccine shortage needs to be addressed first. It’s difficult to plan strategies without flexibility on where more doses can be routed. Experts have also suggested that the government should go closer to the people — something the Haryana government has been doing for months by allowing vaccination camps at housing societies — instead of relying entirely on vaccination centres, through camps in schools and anganwadis, for instance.
Another area that needs attention is tackling vaccine hesitancy, which has been hampering inoculations in rural areas in particular. Dr Anant Bhan, a researcher in global health, bioethics, and health policy, said, “What we need is strong public communication. There is a lot of misconception in rural areas regarding vaccination. The government needs to address them by drafting in local leaders and community frontrunners. It is also not possible for all people to come to government facilities to get vaccinated. Vaccination camps should be set up in community spaces in rural and semi-rural zones.”
While Uttar Pradesh recently announced it plans to vaccinate one crore people every month, Haryana has not set any such target. Haryana additional chief secretary (health) Rajeev Arora said vaccination depends on supplies. “With a population of 2.8 crore, we have carried out close to 64 lakh vaccinations. UP has a population of over 22 crore. So, absolute numbers are not important, the percentage of the population covered in different age groups is.”
Gurgaon has carried out 8,70,708 vaccinations till June 14. This includes 6,97,574 first-dose recipients and 1,73,134 second-dose recipients. “We have had the maximum vaccinations in Haryana so far and will continue to carry out inoculations in a target-oriented, scientific and well-planned manner,” Gurgaon chief medical officer Dr Virender Yadav said.