Vaccination drive in remote areas in the offing
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, September 29 2021: The State Government would launch a campaign of enhancing Covid vaccination in interior areas of all the 16 districts within a week in collaboration with USAID-NISHTHA and Project Swaraksha.

Speaking to media persons at his Lamphelpat office today, National Health Mission, State Mission Director Dr N Shyamjai said that Covid vaccination has achieved remarkable progress in the valley districts as almost 75 per cent of the total population have been covered so far.

But the vaccination rate is still very low in the hill districts and interior areas of the valley districts, he said.

Despite all the efforts made by the Government in association with CSOs and Church bodies, the desired rate of vaccination could not be achieved.

As such, the vaccination campaign was planned to address people's doubt and fear about Covid vaccines and enhance the rate of vaccination, Dr Shyamjai said.

He said that Project Swaraksha is funded by Crypto Relief with Anaxee digital support provided by Jhpiego.

For the campaign which would be jointly implemented by Project Swaraksha, USAID-NISHTHA and the State Government, around 40 volunteers have been trained.

These volunteers would spread awareness about Covid vaccination and Rs 50 would be given to them for every person they bring for vaccination, he said.

The State's total number of people eligible for vaccination is 19,37,628 and 12,21,557 (63.40 per cent) have been administered the first dose till September 28 while 4,68,360 people (24.70 per cent) have received the second dose too.

Of all the people who are eligible for vaccination, around 60,000 have been waiting for completion of three months since recovery from Covid while one lakh people are speculated to have gone outside the State.

It would be much safer if at least 17 lakh people are vaccinated, Dr Shyamjai said.

Until all the eligible people are vaccinated, schools and colleges cannot be re-opened.

All the people studying and working in colleges and universities are eligible for vaccination, he said while appealing to all those who have not been vaccinated to get vaccinated at the earliest.

For schools, teaching, non-teaching staff, transporters, parents and family members of students must be vaccinated, he said.

The SARS-CoV-2 variants presently wreaking havoc in the State are Delta and other variants which are 50 times more dangerous than the Wuhan strain, he continued.

Pointing out that a series of festivals would be arriving shortly, Dr Shyamjai added that it would be much safer if majority of the people are vaccinated at least with the first dose before these festivals.

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