The Union Territory crossed the milestone of administering a million doses of COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday.
The region which began vaccinating priority segments of the population simultaneous to the nation-wide roll-out of the programme on January 16, has so far completed giving 10,03,013 doses. To date, 6,91,872 first doses of Covishield and 3,11,141 second doses of the vaccine have been administered.
The administration is now focused on completing administering at least a single dose of vaccine to hitherto unvaccinated people numbering about three lakh. The Union Territory has an estimated 10 lakh population eligible for vaccination.
Meanwhile, Lt. Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, who, along with Chief Minister N. Rangasamy, visited a special vaccination camp in Kundupalayam, Mettupalayam, said the administration was going all out to ensure that the entire 10 lakh eligible population was either fully covered or vaccinated with at least a single dose of vaccine soon.
According to the Lt. Governor, an estimated 70% of the population has been given the first dose and urged unvaccinated persons not to delay taking the jab.” It is noteworthy that through the vaccination programme, there has not been any shortage of vaccines in the Union Territory,” the Lt. Governor said.
Meanwhile, with steady fall in coronavirus cases in recent months, the thrust of the health department’s messaging has shifted to promoting vaccination even while advising the public to adopt COVID-appropriate behaviour as the virus was still around.
“We have broken through the phase of high vaccine hesitancy through our awareness campaigns. We are looking to maintain the momentum and achieve full coverage of the population,” Health Secretary T. Arun said.
The department currently has a stock of about 2 lakh doses and planned to procure more as vaccination picks up, he said.
The vaccination programme had been bogged down by slow offtake in the early days of the campaign, but had picked up speed in recent weeks. For instance, between January 16 and and June 10, only three lakh people had taken the first dose. By the beginning of July, the Union Territory had administered 5 lakh doses.
“One of the first things we had addressed was to provide the facility closer to the community by decentralising the vaccine programme to local PHCs,” said Mr. Arun.
Outreach interventions have since aimed to get the vaccination facility closer to the people. Health officials said the progress on the vaccination front had been driven by several initiatives, including special walk-in vaccination camps across 100 session sites in the Union Territory, street corner sessions, 48-hour non-stop sessions and door-to-door vaccination for the infirm and immobile categories.
One of the ongoing drives is led by MLAs in their respective constituencies. The health department has dedicated a team of doctors and staff to each of these constituencies to manage vaccine session sites.
“The key message to those who are still waiting to get a jab is that vaccination is safe. No adverse reaction has been reported as a result of taking the vaccine,” Mr. Arun said.
Moreover, there is hard-to-ignore evidence that about 97% of ICU admissions of coronavirus patients is attributable to non-exposure to vaccination.
Meanwhile, the health department reiterated that though the COVID-19 spread had reduced in Puducherry, it had not completely subsided. People should maintain all COVID-19 appropriate behaviour like hand washing, wearing face mask and maintaining social distancing as the festival season was approaching and the economy had opened up considerably.
Those with COVID-19-like symptoms should immediately give sample for test and quarantine themselves. Everyone above 18 years of age should get vaccinated at the earliest, the department said.
The health department appealed to the remaining people to get vaccinated at the earliest by utilising the vaccination services to make Puducherry safe and prevent third wave.
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