Making it to the list of infamy : Low vaccination coverage
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: January 18, 2022 -

In the list of infamy. As the country completed one year of the vaccination drive, Manipur managed to work herself into the list of the Infamous Three, making up the last three spots on the table of vaccination, just above Nagaland and Meghalaya.

Not the last spot is perhaps the only comfort Manipur can take from the list as it has come higher than the said two other North Eastern States. The figure is disturbing in itself and statistics do not lie.

Till January 15, 2022, only 57.47 percent of the eligible population had received the first dose of the vaccine while only 43.54 percent had received the second dose.

This is the figure after more than a year of rolling out the vaccination drive and the Government will seriously need to do more than just call out to the people to get their shots.

Think out of the box and to get anywhere near to coming to this, it would perhaps help if the Government seriously gets down to the business of studying and trying to understand the basic factors responsible for the vaccine hesitancy.

Or should the low vaccination coverage be studied and understood only through the prism of vaccine hesitancy ? How about studying the socio-economic conditions of the people and link it to the vaccination rate ?

As understood from the statistics rolled out by the COVID-19 Common Control Room daily, the two capital districts are right up there at the top of the vaccination drive with Imphal West having registered 74.43 percent of the eligible people receiving their first dose and 58.85 percent the second dose.

It is the same with Imphal East with 71.04 percent and 54.37 percent respectively.

The other valley districts have comparatively done better with 60 percent and above of the eligible population having received the first dose of the vaccine.

It is the hill districts which are a matter of concern and this is something which the State Government must have taken note of.

As repeatedly pointed out in the reports of The Sangai Express, most of the hill districts continue to be a matter of concern in so far as the vaccination drive is concerned.

From the beginning, that is for well over a year, Kangpokpi district and Ukhrul district continue to occupy the last two spots on the vaccination table, with the former having registered just 20.07 percent of the eligible population receiving their first dose of the vaccine and 13.44 percent the second dose.

Ukhrul does no better with just 25.61 percent having received the first dose and 19.02 percent the second dose.

The figures given here are till January 15, 2022. Likewise the other hill districts do no better with Kamjong, Pherzawl, Noney, Senapati, Tamenglong and Tengnoupal coming way down the vaccination table.

More than clear that the Government will need to do something more than just urging the people to come out for their vaccination.

Perhaps this is where the Government and the respective district administrations would sincerely need to study how best to use the service of the numerous hill based civil society organisations to mobilise the people to get their vaccination shot.

If Church bodies can get their act together and appeal to the Election Commission of India to reschedule the February 27 polling date on the ground that it falls on a Sunday, there is no reason why their service cannot be utilised to galvanise the people to come out for their vaccination shot.

This is a point which has already been touched earlier and there is the need to understand why this has been repeated here again.