Not many takers for free booster shots

Coimbatore: While the municipal corporation deploys 10 people, including health workers and volunteers, in each Covid vaccination camp, hardly 35 people turn up to get booster shots.
Due to the drop in Covid cases, people are reluctant to get vaccinated and health officials are finding it an uphill task to increase booster dose coverage, a senior corporation health official said. “Of the 12,73,922 people eligible for vaccination in the city, only 7.2% have received the booster dose,” he told TOI.
The city had achieved 114% first-dose coverage and 109% second-dose coverage, and was often cited as an example. But it is struggling to get past 10% booster dose coverage, 35 days after booster doses were made free.
The city had achieved more than 100% vaccine coverage due to the high floating population, mainly consisting of guest workers.
As many as 340 camps are being organised as part of the special vaccination drive once in a fortnight with 10 people manning each camp, said city health officer Dr Pradeep V Krishnakumar. “But hardly 12,000 people come forward to get vaccinated, which has demotivated health workers. They expect 50,000 people when they make arrangements.”
“I think people are not interested in getting booster doses since Covid-19 infection has come down. People should realise that booster dose can save their life. They should make use of the free vaccines announced for a window of 75 days,” Pradeep said.
“Reaching out to school and college students is not an issue as they can be reached through the institutions. But reaching out to the 18+ population is difficult. When the booster dose was announced free, the coverage jumped from 1.58% to 6% all of a sudden, but since then, progress has been very slow,” he added.