Helplines, mobiliser teams to fight vaccine resistance in Nuh

A CHATBOT NUMBER 8059312201 HAS ALSO BEEN ACTIVATED ON WHATSAPP IN THE DISTRICT TO FIELD QUERIES

GURUGRAM: The Nuh district administration on Sunday launched dedicated, round-theclock Covid-19 helplines — 1950, 1800 180 1256, 01267 282 002, +91 70826 26686 — to provide citizens access to critical information related to Covid resources.

A chatbot number — +91-8059312201 — has also been activated on Whatsapp in the district to field queries regarding sampling, bed availability, vaccination, home isolation, RT-PCR reports and medical team consultations, said officials.

Dr Basant Dubey, district immunisation officer of Nuh, said, “The villagers are facing issues with online registration and for that, we have tied up with 317 computer operators in different villages who are running customer service centres in these villages to help in the registration. Offline vaccinations are not being conducted.”

Dr Dubey said they have written to the state government to allow them to start offline vaccinations across the district. “The vaccination number will increase once the offline process starts and people can walk in to these centres,” he said.

Nuh deputy commissioner Dhirendra Khadgata said, “The helpline will directly connect villagers to official sources of information and medical services, thus enabling quick access and helping the administration streamline its relief efforts. The chatbot has processed over 5,000 conversations on Whatsapp from users across the district, including over 1,000 messages sent on Sunday.”

Khadgata said the district has seen vaccine hesitancy and resistance to a large degree. “To generate vaccine demand, we have roped in 100 mobiliser mitras, one at each subcentre , for supporting AAAS (ASHA, anganwadi worker and auxiliary nurse midwife) with Information Education Communication (IEC) and Behavioural Change Communications (BCC) activities.

The teams are regularly doing activities among the community though there have been instances of aggressive behaviour against even our female field workers in the villages. There are 38 villages where even after our regular mobilisation activities, we could not vaccinate a single individual,” he said.

Officials said that since April, they have conducted several meetings at public places — including 283 at dhabas, 134 at grocery stores, 203 at barbershops, 157 with quack doctors, 186 at community centres — where reluctant villagers were counselled.