M F AHMED
Daltonganj, Nov.8: Palamu and Garhwa districts are facing immense hesitancy and reluctance towards Covid-19 vaccinations from the public side. Two panchayats have been segregated so far in Palamu where people harbour resistance to vaccination while scores of panchayats in Garhwa abound in hesitancy towards immunization.
The two panchayats of Palamu are Ramgarh and Uldanda, both quite far away from Daltonganj. A house to house survey in four villages of these two panchayats has revealed that there are more than 100 eligibles here that have refused to take vaccines.
Civil surgeon Palamu, Anil Kumar said, “Our Sahiyas in their house to house survey have detected 108 people who are resistant to take the jab.”
Quoting Sahiyas the CS added, “These 108 claim they are all fit and fine. So, they don’t feel the need to take vaccines.”
Reeling out the statistics, he said that 50 eligibles have declined vaccination at village Kachan, 40 at Sarja, 10 at Serka and 8 at Uldanda.
“This is simply unfortunate. People still have some such contention for not taking the jab. We will reach these people to make them understand as to why jab is very important for their lives and the lives of their dear ones,” Dr. Kumar said.
Except for village Kachan that falls under the Ramgarh panchayats, the three other villages Sarja, Serka and Uldanda come under the Uldanda panchayat.
Sources said that 173 people in these four villages were found away from home eking out their living in some other states.The families of these people failed to tell the Sahiyas if they have been vaccinated or not as the families are unaware of it.
“Right now we can’t do anything for those outside the state except asking their families here to keep telling them on cell phones to get vaccinated at their workplaces,” Dr. Anil observed.
All the 4 villages are by and large tribal-dominated villages and listen to the Churches and trust their messages. The CS on Sunday rushed to one of the churches in Daltonganj to have an audience with the faithful there but the mass prayer was over by the time he reached there. He tried to call upon the Bishop of Palamu but he was ‘not available.’ Kumar said he would try again on the coming Sunday.
Sources said this reluctance and hesitancy towards vaccination is not only in the villages of Palamu as Garhwa district but the areas close to them reel under the same problem which has adversely affected the vaccinations.
According to WHO surveillance medical officer, Valema Deogam, Garhwa district is right now at the lowest in vaccinations in Jharkhand.
She said that too much hesitancy and reluctance towards the vaccination is tremendous in the region. People dread injections used for vaccination and hence don’t come for getting the jab.
“We need to further motivate our work force here in Garhwa district which looks exhausted and fatigued just because of the apathy and colossal indifference towards the vaccinations here.”
She said that the ANMs and Sahiyas have been asked in the entire Garhwa district to sit with the locals and get the people ready to take the jab that are dodging it contending they have good health.
Sources said that around 5 lakh people have deferred their second dose of vaccine in Palamu; it is around 3.50 lakh people who are postponing their second dose vaccination despite their due dates elapsing.
