A tribal village in Kerala’s Wayanad is India’s first fully vaccinated hamlet

Home to four primitive tribes, Noolpuzha is the second largest tribal-populated local body in the state and it now flaunts cent per cent vaccination status.

Noolpuzha in Wayanad district in north Kerala has achieved the distinction of being the first tribal panchayat in the state to be fully vaccinated, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Sunday. In a Facebook post, the CM said special Covid-19 vaccination camps were organised in five schools in the panchayat and nearby areas to provide vaccines to all residents.

Health workers on their way to vaccinate villagers in tribal villages in Kerala. (HT PHOTO.)

People staying in remote areas were brought to these schools by vehicles provided by the tribal department. Those who could not reach camps were inoculated in their colonies, the CM said while lauding all involved in the task. For some of the residents who did not have identity cards or Aadhaar, a special provision was made available in Cowin App to register them using the reference of an individual in the same colony, the CM said in his post.

Home to four primitive tribes, Noolpuzha is the second largest tribal-populated local body in the state and it now flaunts cent per cent vaccination status. Out of 30,000 people of the panchayat 22.616 are above 18, of them 21,964 have already been vaccinated. Some of the inhabitants who are working in other areas have also been inoculated, a senior officer of the tribal department said.

The CM had said earlier the state will a launch a massive campaign from August 9 to 31 to vaccinate maximum people. He said the Union government was asked to provide the maximum doses of vaccines as almost half of the population is not infected by the virus. The state’s low sero positivity rate is another serious concern-- around 50 per cent of the population is still susceptible to the virus, says the latest sero survey conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research.