Covid vaccination picks up pace in Nuh with door-to-door campaign - Hindustan Times
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Covid vaccination picks up pace in Nuh with door-to-door campaign

BySuparna Roy
Nov 17, 2021 12:15 AM IST

According to official data, Nuh has one of the lowest vaccination coverage rates in Haryana with the first dose coverage at 38% and second dose coverage at 8.9%

The pace of Covid-19 vaccination in Nuh has improved this week with over 5,500 people being vaccinated daily in the district, said officials on Tuesday.

In Nuh, door-to-door vaccination started on November 10. On Monday, 11,090 people were vaccinated while on Tuesday, 11,631 people were vaccinated in Nuh. (PTI File)
In Nuh, door-to-door vaccination started on November 10. On Monday, 11,090 people were vaccinated while on Tuesday, 11,631 people were vaccinated in Nuh. (PTI File)

According to official data, Nuh has one of the lowest vaccination coverage rates in Haryana with the first dose coverage at 38% and second dose coverage at 8.9%. Officials attributed the change in pace to the door-to-door campaign that started earlier this month and the incentives, such as extra funds for villages, announced by the district administration.

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In Nuh, door-to-door vaccination started on November 10. Officials said that before the door-to-door campaign, 2,500-2,800 people were vaccinated daily, but in the last two days, over 11,000 people were vaccinated every day in the district. On Monday, 11,090 people were vaccinated while on Tuesday, 11,631 people were vaccinated in Nuh.

Dr Surender Kumar Yadav, chief medical officer of Nuh district, said, “In the last three days, the pace of vaccination increased rapidly, especially by involving all departments in the district. The deputy commissioner formed committees at the village level and announced several incentives. Awareness campaigns are also being carried out by different departments that are encouraging residents to get vaccinated. Health staff like ASHA and ANM workers have prepared lists of all residents who are yet to take the vaccine and if anyone is not able to go then they are also being taken to the centres.”

The department has hired 47 cars to help ASHA and ANM workers reach vaccination sites and take people to the centres. In the first week of November, health workers surveyed every village in the district and prepared lists of those who were yet to take doses of vaccination.

Officials said that every ASHA worker (there are 1160 workers in the district) personally interacted with residents in 450 villages while preparing the list, and are now ensuring that all those who are eligible for the vaccine either go to the vaccination centre themselves or are taken there in vehicles hired by the health department. Each ASHA worker is assigned a population of 1,000-1,200.

The district administration has also started giving incentives to people and has declared that the first five villages in every block to achieve 100% vaccination will be given 10 lakh in extra funds for infrastructure development projects. The district administration has also tied up with the chemist associations and said that residents who have taken their first dose will get a 5% discount on medicines and those fully vaccinated will get a 10% discount. Vaccinated residents will also be given a 0.5 paisa discount per litre on petrol, said the chief medical officer.

“If this pace continues (over 10,000 people are vaccinated daily), then by next week we hope to leave the list of 45 districts in the country that have a lower than 50% rate of first-dose vaccination,” added the Yadav.

Capt Shakti Singh, deputy commissioner of Nuh, said, “We first identified the problem areas and found that availability of public transport was a major problem and both residents and vaccinators would go back early as they would not find vehicles after 3-4pm. So, we hired vehicles that ferry four teams of vaccinators around 7am so that vaccination can start from 8am.”

He also said that initially, the pace of vaccination was slow because of rumours such as the vaccine adversely affecting people’s health.

“Since the door-to-door campaign has started, the vaccination pace has definitely increased and we will make sure it stays the same. On Tuesday, over 13,400 people were vaccinated, which exceeds the total number of people vaccinated in June and July. Our target is to vaccinate 20,000 people daily by end of this week,” added Singh.

He also said that the administration has noted that due to the sowing season, many individuals leave for fields early in the morning and miss the vaccination process. The administration will send special teams to agricultural fields from next week for their vaccination.

Last Thursday, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar set a target for the state to achieve 100% vaccination in two months.

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