Ward councillor doles out gifts in lucky draw to boost vaccination drive

Ruchir Kumar ruchirkumar@hindustantimes

Ruchir Kumar

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ruchirkumar@hindustantimes.com

In a bid to tackle vaccine hesitancy, a ward councillor in Katihar district gave out gifts in lucky draw to encourage people take the Covid-19 jab.

In a first of its kind initiative in Bihar, Manzoor Khan, councillor of ward number 45 in Katihar, doled out a 24-inch LED colour TV, bicycle, pedestal fan, wall clock and tiffin box as gifts for winners of the lucky draw held among those who took the vaccine at a special camp held in his constituency recently on June 26.

The trick did wonders, as nearly 800 people, a record for the district, turned up at Bhatta Tola vaccination centre to take the shot, officials said on Tuesday.

“Before this, we never achieved around 800 vaccination shots in a single day at any vaccination session site since commencement of Covid-19 inoculation drive on January 16. Earlier, we would be happy by vaccinating around 200-350 people at a vaccination centre. However, we achieved a new milestone for our district on June 26,” said Udayan Mishra, district magistrate (DM) of Katihar.

“We are now planning similar initiatives, involving public representatives, and doling out gifts among beneficiaries on a weekly basis,” he said.

The draw of lots was done in presence of the DM, who also handed out gifts among the winners present there.

Khan, who recovered from SARS CoV-2 infection last year, admitted to vaccine hesitancy in Muslim-dominated areas.

“I took my idea of organising a lucky draw competition at the vaccination centre to the DM, who supported me. I then got in touch with a potato cold storage firm M/s Neha, that agreed to sponsor the gifts. We had to pitch pandals, draw up tarpaulin because of rainfall and decorate the vaccination centre with balloons etc. to give it a festive look, for which I also contributed some money. The entire event was organised for about ₹52,000,” said Khan.

“If we public representatives take up such small initiatives, I am sure we will be able to achieve the target our Prime Minister and chief minister have set of vaccinating the eligible population by December,” he added.

District immunisation officer Dr DN Jha appreciated Khan’s initiative. “Had it not rained, we may have achieved 1,000-plus vaccinations, but we had to stop at 782 vaccinations that day,” said Dr Jha.

Katihar is among the laggard districts so far as vaccination is concerned, largely because of hesitancy in the area. It had vaccinated only around 2,500 people against an eligible population of 22 lakh before the onset of the second wave of the pandemic in early April this year. The vaccination drive started on January 16 in the country.

However, as per figures provided by officials, the drive gained momentum during the last one month.

“We have vaccinated 3.10 lakh eligible people with the first dose, accounting for 15% of the eligible population. We have been able to almost saturate ward number 45, where the special vaccination drive was organised,” said Dr DN Pandey, civil surgeon of Katihar.

In addition to the static vaccination sites, the district has got 20 Teeka Express or mobile vaccination vans for rural areas and two for urban areas to inoculate people at their doorsteps.

“We have vaccinated 13,211 beneficiaries so far at an average daily 287 vaccinations per van since the two mobile vans started to ply in urban areas of the district from June 4,” said Rahul Kumar Sonkar, district technical officer, outreach and nutrition, Care India, which is the development partner to the state health department.

Bihar has so far administered 1,58,25,605 doses of Covid-19 vaccine among its 7.22 crore eligible beneficiaries. Of this, 1,36,25,770 have been given the first dose and 21,99,835 the second dose. Chief minister Nitish Kumar has set a target to vaccinate six crore people in six months, beginning July.