Temples, mosques, gurdwaras help Ambala get high vaccination rate, best Haryana district tag

Ambala has 2.75 lakh people above the age of 45, who are eligible for vaccination, and the district had vaccinated 2,20,267 people till 13 April.

A woman being vaccinated against Covid at a mobile unit in Ambala | Urjita Bhardwaj | ThePrint

New Delhi: Poorna Rani, a resident of Ambala’s Durga-Nagar suburban area was among those gathered at a Covid vaccination camp organised by the local authorities on 14 April, the day of the Baisakhi celebrations.

The harvesting festival coincided with the third day of the Modi government’s Tika Utsav — the nation-wide vaccination drive between 11-14 April. Rani, aged in her late 90s, who was accompanied by her daughter-in-law Poonam for her first shot, says she learnt about the vaccination camp from an announcement by the local gurdwara.

This is one of the novel ideas that the district health department in Ambala has come up with to achieve its vaccination targets — using religious institutions and heads to convince people to go in for their shots.

The idea, to get gurdwaras, temples, churches and mosques to appeal to people to get vaccinated against Covid, occurred to them because they felt most Indians are religious, who would heed the words of their religious heads, explained the office of the civil surgeon, Ambala (the district health office.)

“The voice of a priest, granthi or a maulvi is considered as voice of God by the common people. So, in many areas, people have come forward, after hearing the announcements from religious institutions,” Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Ambala, Dr Kuldeep Singh, told ThePrint.

“On Baisakhi, we used photos of Sikh Gurus on our banners to appeal to people to come for vaccination. It helped us break the resistance to vaccination that we were facing in some areas,” he added.

The district health office has also employed mobile vaccination units to improve its reach. Accredited Social Health Activists (or ASHA workers) have also been pressed into service, both for campaigning about the need for vaccination and to accompany the mobile units.

All this has helped Ambala become the Haryana district with the highest percentage of vaccinated population. Although Gurugram and Faridabad are ahead of Ambala in terms of absolute number of doses administered, both these districts have almost double the population of Ambala.

Ambala has a projected population of 12.5 lakh, according to the office of the civil surgeon, of which approximately 22 per cent (2.75 lakh) is above 45 years of age, and eligible for vaccination. The district had administered 2,20,267 doses till 13 April.

Meanwhile, Gurugram with a projected population of around 29 lakh, had vaccinated 3,63,691 doses and Faridabad with an estimated population of over 20 lakh, had vaccinated 3,04,164 doses.

There are still pockets within the district where people are hesitant to be vaccinated — owing to the fear of side-effects — but Singh hopes such resistance will soon be completely removed.

“We are fast reaching our target of vaccinating the entire eligible population,” he said.

Vaccination on the move

To increase its reach in areas with low percentage of people eligible for vaccination, or among those who might find it difficult to visit a vaccination centre, such as the old and ailing, the Ambala district health department has employed eight vans to act as mobile vaccination units.

The vans leave the Civil Hospital, Ambala, at 9am everyday to cover the route that has been decided for the day. Along the way, they stop at different locations, vaccinating people in the neighbourhood. The units operate till about 6pm, before returning to the Civil Hospital.

“We have turned our ambulances to mobile vaccination vans, which are sent to approximately 25 to 30 chosen spots everyday, to carry out the vaccination programme. There are four people in the van — a doctor, a vaccinator [who could be an ASHA worker or an ANM (Auxiliary Nurse Midwife)], and two helpers to mobilise people,” said Singh.

“The vaccinators wait at every spot for 30 minutes after vaccinating the last beneficiary, to ensure that there are no side-effects. The vans are also equipped with adverse-event-following-immunisation (AEFI) kits, with medicines such as Paracetamol and ORS packets,” Singh said.

ThePrint team followed one such unit in Ambala, with one doctor, one ASHA worker and an ANM on board.

The health workers began by counselling beneficiaries and encouraging them to come in for vaccination. After administering the dose, they gave each recipient two Dolo 650 tablets, to be taken in case of fever following vaccination.

One of the recipients, 65-year-old Vimla Rani, said she had earlier visited the Civil Hospital to get vaccinated, but found it to be overcrowded, and so returned. But since the mobile unit was in her neighbourhood, she decided to come for her shot.

“I was initially sceptical about getting vaccinated [owing to rumours of side-effects], but decided to go for it after the doctors assured me that it is safe. I would also urge my family members and neighbours to get vaccinated,” she told ThePrint.

The mobile units have also been visiting offices, such as banks, to help employees get vaccinated. At one such spot visited by ThePrint team, the Moti Nagar branch of the State Bank of India (SBI) in Ambala, Doctor Gagan Sandhu, in-charge of the drive in the area, said that while employees are mostly willing to be vaccinated, local people in the area often have to be counselled before they agree to the jab.

“When we started the vaccination drive in February, each mobile unit was administering around 800 doses in a day. We are now close to our targets and [with fewer people left to vaccinate] are administering about 300-400 doses daily,” Sandhu told ThePrint.

The high point had been when the district had administered more than 20,000 vaccines in a day across 156 centres in Ambala, as against the state health department’s target of 10,000, Ambala CMO, Singh, told ThePrint.

Asha workers dispel doubts, but challenges remain

Part of the credit in Ambala’s vaccination success goes to ASHA workers and ANMs who have played an important part in encouraging people to come for the shot.

“We campaign from door-to-door, to bring eligible beneficiaries to vaccination centres. Each ASHA worker usually covers 40-45 homes in a day. We also record the contact details of people who take the first shot and organise camps near their location again, so that they can get the second jab,” said Paramjit Kaur, an ASHA worker deployed in the Chaurmastpur area of the district.

The district has also employed local people as ‘mobilisers’ who share information about nearest vaccination camps with those in their neighbourhood. The mobilisers get paid Rs 200, for each camp that they share information for.

All such efforts have helped the district administration bring down the initial resistance to vaccination, that was displayed by many, especially from suburban and rural areas.
People were especially hesitant to be vaccinated after Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij tested positive days after participating in the Covaxin trials.

Although the minister made it clear that his contracting the disease was in no way related to the vaccine, as he had taken the first dose only a few days before falling ill, some people still spread rumours that the minister was ill because of the vaccine, making others hesitant in going in for it, said the Ambala CMO, adding that the district administration was trying to curb all such rumours surrounding the vaccine.

Still some doubts and fears remain.

One Ambala resident, on condition of anonymity, told ThePrint that a person in his neighbourhood had a paralytic attack, a day after he was vaccinated. Although the reasons for his condition were not clear, it discouraged others in the neighbourhood from getting vaccinated.

The challenge is in getting the support of panchayat and block offices, said Dr Ashish, the in-charge of the community health center at Chaurmastpur.

“We hold regular meetings at the community and primary health centres to discuss the way forward. However, there is lack of support from the local administrative bodies at the block and panchayat levels. The pressure is mostly on the district health department. It would help if the offices of the block development & panchayat officers [BDPO] encouraged panchayats and head of villages to help us in the vaccination drive,” he added.

(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)