- Wednesday, April 24, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIAN prime minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (3) addressed the issue of Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy and asked officials to take up the challenge of erasing “rumour” and “misconception among people” to increase the coverage of the jab. He also asked the officials to take help of local religious leaders to make the vaccination drive more effective.
Addressing a review meeting with district officials on increasing vaccination coverage virtually, Modi said, “You have a major challenge of ‘rumour’ and ‘misconception among people’. As we go ahead, perhaps we will see these challenges in concentrated areas. A big solution is to make as many people aware as possible.”
Review meet with districts where COVID-19 vaccination could pick pace. https://t.co/TReGpnL3bC
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 3, 2021
The prime minister, who returned from a tour of Europe on Tuesday (2) where he attended the G20 Summit in Rome, Italy, and COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, requested district magistrates to take the vaccination drive to every doorstep and encourage people to take the jab.
“Doors of all those houses will be knocked where people still do not have the protection of double dose. So far, you arranged for people to come to vaccination centres and have safe vaccination. We will now have to go to every house with the spirit of ‘Har ghar teeka, ghar ghar teeka’ (jab at every house).”
Stressing on solutions to cater to people’s hesitation in taking the vaccine, Modi asked the officials to take help of the local religious leaders to encourage their devotees and beneficiaries to take the doses.
“You can take the help of local religious leaders, make their short videos and circulate it,” he said.
The meeting featuring Modi included districts that have seen less than 50 per cent coverage of the first dose of the vaccine and low coverage of the second dose.
Modi spoke to district magistrates of more than 40 districts in states like Jharkhand, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya and others.
India recently attracted the world’s attention by administering a billion jabs. Modi told the officials, “Progress made so far is due to your hard work. Every member of the administration, ASHA workers worked a lot, walked for miles and took vaccination to remote locations. But if we become lax after 1 billion, a new crisis can come.”
“They say one must never underestimate disease and enemies. They have to be fought against till the very end. So, I would want that there should be no laxity in the ongoing vaccination drive,” Modi said.
India has so far vaccinated 1.07 billion jabs but only 337 million of them have been the second dose.
In order to widen the vaccine coverage, Modi said it can be done by setting up teams of 20-25 people depending on the region. He also suggested the teams encourage healthy competition among them so that the best results in the vaccination drive can be achieved.
Exhorting the officials to prepare region-wise timetables for local goals, the prime minister said, “You will have to do your best to take your districts nearer the national average.”
