43.2% report discrimination against people infected with Covid-19: survey

PUNE In a survey carried out by a private firm, in association with the government, it was found that of the 3,538 people surveyed, 40% said that they have come across incidents of discrimination against people who have been infected with Covid-19

PUNE In a survey carried out by a private firm, in association with the government, it was found that of the 3,538 people surveyed, 40% said that they have come across incidents of discrimination against people who have been infected with Covid-19.

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Also a significant percentage still showed vaccine hesitancy and a nominal percentage said that they would not get vaccinated and not let their families be vaccinated. However, a majority of the respondents, 87.7%, are ready to take the vaccine.

The Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices survey (KAP) was conducted on a document-based study by UNICEF-RedR India consultants and the Covid-19 awareness committee constituted for Pune region, which, apart from Pune, constitutes four districts under the Pune division - Kolhapur, Solapur, Sangli and Satara.

The study covered 3,538 community-based respondents from municipal corporation areas, town panchayats and talukas in Pune division. The aim of the survey was to understand the knowledge and attitudes of people towards Covid-19 as a pandemic and as an infection, which has been a major challenge since 2020.

The respondents belong to all age groups, both genders and different educational backgrounds.

After almost 16 months now since the infection was first reported in Pune and in Maharashtra, over 99% of the respondents said that they are aware of the disease and its main symptoms like fever, dry cough, difficulty in breathing and loss of taste or smell, and they also know that it spreads through droplets. However a small percentage, 1-2% has misconceptions that the infection spreads through mosquito bites, unclean water, contaminated food or through sweat or via blood transfusion.

Another important finding was that a nominal 3.3% said that they are not ready to get vaccinated or let their family members be vaccinated. Also, 12.3% showed hesitancy towards vaccination, of which 5.4% said they have a fear of the vaccine; 3.7% said they have doubts about the vaccine and 3.2% cited technical reasons like no identification card, no smart phone and didn’t know how to register for the vaccine.

A significant 43.2% said that they have come across incidents of discrimination against a person who was infected with Covid-19.

Dr Subhash Salunkhe, Covid-19 advisor to state government said, “There is not one person in this city who can say that they do not know or have not heard of anyone who lost their life to Covid19. It could be a distant relative or even a friend or a neighbour, but all of us have suffered directly or indirectly because of the Covid-19 infection. With regards to vaccine hesitancy, there have been multiple studies and examples which indicate that even though one can get infected after both doses of the vaccine, the severity of symptoms gets milder compared to those who have got one shot or no shot of the vaccine. Vaccinating as many people as possible is the only way to end the pandemic as soon as possible.”