PremiumThe first tribal panchayat in Kerala's Wayanad district, Noolpuzha, has achieved complete vaccination, state Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday said.
Noolpuzha, which is home to four primitive tribal groups and is the second-largest tribal populated gram panchayat in the state, is the first tribal panchayat in Kerala to achieve 100% vaccination status.
In a Facebook post, CM Vijayan said special vaccination camps were organised in five schools in different parts of the panchayat to provide jabs to the tribals who were brought there in vehicles of the tribal department.
Those who could not reach the camps were given the vaccine directly in the colonies, the Kerala CM said.
Out of the nearly 30,000 people of the panchayat, 22,616 are aged 18 or above. Out of them, 21,964 have already been vaccinated. Among the 7,602 tribal adults who mostly live in Muthanga and inside the forest, 7,352 have already been vaccinated.
This means more than 97% of the adults in the panchayats have received either one dose of Covishield or Covaxin.
Those who were Covid-19 positive or on the primary contact list in the past three months did not receive the vaccine, Vijayan said.
The Kerala chief minister further added, for those living in the colonies who did not have an identity document, such as Aadhaar card and voter ID, or a phone number, a special provision was made available on the COWIN app to register them using the reference ID of an individual in the colony itself.
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