Six months on, over 6k Covid warriors yet to take first jab in GB Nagar

After the statewide vaccination drive for Covid warriors began in January, the Gautam Budh Nagar district administration identified over 51,000 beneficiaries, including 29,630 healthcare workers (HCWs) and 21,432 frontline workers (FLWs), for inoculation in the first phase

After the statewide vaccination drive for Covid warriors began in January, the Gautam Budh Nagar district administration identified over 51,000 beneficiaries, including 29,630 healthcare workers (HCWs) and 21,432 frontline workers (FLWs), for inoculation in the first phase. However, even after six months, while over 6,000 of them have yet not taken their first shot, more than 16,000 beneficiaries have not taken their second vaccine doses yet, says data available with the district administration.

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Of the 29,630 HCWs who registered for the inaugural phase of vaccination in January this year, 3,592 of them have not taken the first jab. Not only that, among the 26,038 HCWs who have at least taken the first shot, 11,578 of them have not turned up to take the second jab, said officials.

Dr Sunil Sharma, GB Nagar’s chief medical officer, said despite repeated appeals, many of the HCWs didn’t turn up for the vaccination. “The HCWs are doctors, nurses, paramedics, technical staff and sanitary workers. As per the survey of the district health department, it has been found that the maximum number of beneficiaries not turning up for the jabs drive are from the nursing category. Either they have shifted somewhere else after the lockdown curbs were relaxed or they have left the vocation. Now, we have started intimating all the hospitals in the district to provide the updated details of these absentees. Most of them were associated with private hospitals, medical colleges and nursing training schools,” said Sharma.

Giving vaccination details of FLWs, the CMO said of the 21,432 beneficiaries registered for vaccination under the FLW category, 3,034 of them have not taken the first jab. “The FLWs include personnel from state and central police organisations, i.e. armed forces, home guards, prison staff and civil defence volunteers, including disaster management volunteers, municipal workers, revenue officers engaged in containment and surveillance activities. Among the 18,398 FLWs who have taken the first shot, 5,096 of them have not come for the second dose,” said officials.

He further said only 31,359 beneficiaries have taken both doses of the vaccine so far, which is a little over 61% of the 51,062 registered Corona warriors. “The rate of taking the first dose was much higher as nearly 87% of them had taken their maiden jab. This dilly-dallying approach has really irked the health department officials,” he said

Suhas L Y, district magistrate of G B Nagar, said almost all the FLWs registered for vaccination have been inoculated. “Most of the absentees have either been transferred to other places or have taken the jabs outside the district. If any FLW in the district is found hesitating to take the shot, we’ll ask them to take it as soon as possible,” he said.

Explaining the reason behind the low percentage of vaccination among HCWs, Ajit Kumar, the director (public relations) of Sharda hospital, said most of the HCWs were sceptical about the accuracy and efficacy of the vaccines during the initial phase of the inoculation drive.

“Even doctors and paramedics were not very enthusiastic about taking the jabs. But, they seem to have changed their minds after the higher mortality rate observed during the second wave of Covid-19. Now the problem is that the government is not giving free vaccines to private hospitals and the HCWs of our hospital do not want to venture out at public places to get the jabs. As a result, they are paying to take vaccines in the hospitals now,” said Kumar.