Hyderabad: Poor response to vax drive in Old City stumps government

Poor response to vax drive in Old City stumps government
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Poor response to vax drive in Old City stumps government

Highlights

Lack of awareness and misinformation campaign against the corona vaccination on social media has impacted the vaccination programme in the Old City of Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Lack of awareness and misinformation campaign against the corona vaccination on social media has impacted the vaccination programme in the Old City of Hyderabad.

Worried over poor response to the vaccination programme, the State Government has decided to rope in religious heads and local public representatives to cover the entire targeted community, especially people above 60 years and persons aged between 45 and 59 with co-morbidities. Top officials of the state Health department told The Hans India that a meeting will be held with community leaders, GHMC Corporators and local legislators in the Old City.

In all, five government hospitals, including Osmania General hospital and Malakpet Area hospital, Nizamia Tibbi Unani hospital and seven private hospitals were permitted to administer vaccines to the eligible persons in the Old City. The authorities are not ready even to divulge the figures of the total number of persons vaccinated till date in the Old City. "Only a few hundred took the first dose of the vaccine since the launch of the vaccination programme on March 1," an official said. In the last two days, the number of inoculated persons saw further dip.

According to Medical and Health Director G Srinivas, the major challenge before the government is to convince people and bring them to the hospitals to get vaccinated. A plan of action to take up a big awareness campaign involving Home Minister Mohd Mahmood Ali, Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi and MLAs of the Old City Assembly segments is being prepared. Before that health officials would hold a meeting with the community representatives.

Aleemuddin, a retired doctor of Nizamia Tibbi hospital, said the government did not take up any educational programme on vaccination which resulted in poor response from the local denizens.

Some locals expressed doubts about its efficacy saying that people got infected with the corona virus even after they were vaccinated.

"These apprehensions should be sorted out first. Only then an increase in the number of people coming forward for vaccination will increase. More number of vaccination centres should also be opened so that people will be aware of the importance of the vaccination to fight the deadly virus," said a doctor.

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