The community health centre in Nuh, where people queue up outside the single window for vaccination. (Express) Only 821 precaution doses have been administered in Nuh district since third-dose vaccination for senior citizens (above 60 years) and frontline and healthcare workers started on January 10. Of these, 332 were administered on the first day itself. In the past week, on average, a paltry 13 precautionary doses have been administered in a day in the district.
Nuh has the lowest vaccination rate among 22 districts in Haryana. As per data shared by the district administration, first dose coverage in Nuh stood at 72% and second dose coverage at 35%.
Nuh was among the 48 lowest performing districts in terms of vaccine coverage in the country as per data shared at a conference of state health ministers in Delhi in October 2021. At a rally in Nuh on November 2021, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar said that the Prime Minister had expressed concern about the rate of vaccination in the district and appealed to people to not spread rumours and misinformation.
In the 15-17 age group, only a third (29,206) out of over 90,000 eligible teenagers have been inoculated with the first dose since January 3.
Health department officials attributed the slow pace of immunisation to several factors including lower literacy, ignorance and rumours, and misinformation among locals on vaccines.
Dr Harshit Goyal at Nuh community health centre (CHC), said, “There is a myth among people here that vaccines cause infertility among men. A lot of people say ‘hamare bachhe nhi honge teeka lagwaya toh (If we get the vaccine, we will not be able to have children)’… We have been trying to educate people, but they indulge in conspiracy theories, and that along with a low literacy rate, contributes to a lower vaccination rate.”
Officials said since the government had made it mandatory for people to get vaccinated and linked it to provision of services — ration, petrol, pension, bank services etc — there had been a slight uptick.
Nishar Khan, a resident of Tauru, who got his first dose earlier this month, said, “I could not get the vaccine earlier as I had been staying at my wife’s house in Rajasthan since the pandemic hit. I recently returned and decided to get the shot as it has been made mandatory to access services and ration.”
At the community health centre in Nuh, a single counter for vaccinations of all age groups had been set up. A health department worker was filling up registration details of people on the CoWin portal before their inoculations. “A majority of people who come here are not internet savvy. So, our staff helps them out in registrations,” he said, requesting anonymity.
Sunita, an ANM worker at a primary health centre in Ghasera, said that vaccine hesitancy was a major concern: “There is a lot of misinformation and rumours about Covid still in this part of the state… Some believe that the vaccine programme is a conspiracy of the government. At the village and community level, we are working with panchayats to counsel people about the long-term benefits of vaccination.”
Earlier this week, the Nuh SDM held a meeting with local clerics and maulvis, appealing to them to educate people about the benefits of vaccination and to not believe in rumours, after certain videos about the ill-effects of vaccine had gone viral on social media in the district.
Dr Surender Kumar, chief medical officer, Nuh, denied that misinformation and rumours were behind the low rate of third doses. “Since the rate of vaccinations only picked up in the district after November 2021, a majority of population is not yet eligible for the precaution dose. In schools, we have set up camps and have vaccinated almost a third of eligible teenagers. There is some ignorance among a minority of population, but our staff is constantly conducting awareness programmes to dispel rumours.”
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