Jharkhand will launch ‘Har Ghar Dastak Tikakaran’, a door-to-door Covid-19 vaccination campaign, across districts on Tuesday to cater to elligible beneficiaries who could not take the first or the second dose of the vaccine due to various reasons, a notification from the National Health Mission (NHM) stated on Monday.
Officials spearheading the Covid-19 immunisation drive in Jharkhand met on Monday to plan the course of the door-to-door vaccination campaign. The prime objective of this campaign, officials said, was to ensure administration of vaccines to eligible second dose beneficiaries who did not take it on time.
As per government records, around 60 per cent of the over 2.41 crore eligible vaccine beneficiaries in the state have received the first dose of vaccine so far, but hardly 30 per cent of vaccine beneficiaries have received the second dose as well.
Several healthcare workers and frontline workers too were only partially vaccinated in Jharkhand. More than 15 per cent healthcare workers and about 20 per cent frontline workers in the state are yet to get their second jab of vaccine Covid-19, government records reveal, highlighting that over 30,000 healthcare workers and close to 70,000 frontline workers in the state were only partially protected against SARS-CoV-2 virus.
As per data available on the Co-Win portal, of the 2,08,127 healthcare workers who got the first dose of vaccine, as many as 1,76,635 also got the second dose. On the other hand, as many as 3,65,222 frontline workers at least got the first jab, and 2,96,694 of them went on to receive the second jab as well.
Government records show that there are 2,09,658 healthcare workers and 3,68,691 frontline workers in Jharkhand for whom vaccines were made available in the first phase of the immunisation drive that began on January 16.
An official from the health department said that some healthcare workers showed reluctance in getting vaccinated during the initial phase of the immunisation drive. Many police personnel, who fall in the category of frontline workers, also tried to avoid vaccine doses during the campaign after rumours of deaths following vaccination went viral on social media, the official said, requesting anonymity.
“This could be the reason why some of the healthcare workers and frontline workers are yet to be vaccinated,” he said.
However, with the immunisation drive gaining momentum, the fear of vaccines gradually faded away, leading to the administration of at least the first dose of vaccine to 99 per cent healthcare and frontline workers. As per government data, 84 per cent healthcare workers and 80 per cent frontline workers have received both the vaccine doses.
According to Co-Win data, about 1,500 healthcare workers and close to 3,500 frontline workers have not even been administered the first dose of vaccine against Covid-19.
“Many healthcare workers and frontline workers also tested positive for Covid-19 after receiving their first jab, and did not take the second jab after recovering,” a National Health Mission (NHM) official involved in the vaccination drive said.