Jabs hit hesitancy hurdle

Average turnout less than 50% at vaccine sessions as recipients get cold feet; glitches in app hamper drive

In the three days since coronavirus vaccinations began in India, roughly 50 people have been given doses per session –half of the 100 on average expected by the government, data released by the Union health ministry showed on Monday, as reports poured in of people being reluctant to come forward to take the jab.

The government said that between Saturday morning and 5pm on Monday, 381,305 people were given doses in 7,704 sessions. Some health workers across the country, who are first in line to get doses, either did not turn up for their appointments, or outages in the digital platform to manage their records meant they were not informed.

The Union government has advised states to call and administer doses to 100 people on average during each session. According to figures collated by HT from across India, the total number of vaccinations by the end of Monday was 429,409.

The turnout dipped from 4,319 on Saturday to 3,593 on Monday (there were no immunisations on Sunday) in the national capital. At the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi, only eight people were vaccinated on Monday, an official said, while asking not to be named.

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Officials said concerns over the vaccines’ safety appear to have deterred many people. “Initially, health care workers were very keen to get the vaccine. But then because of the infodemic, because of things doing the rounds on social media, because of side effects being highlighted more than what they were, it created a lot of anxiety not only among healthcare workers but also in public at large,” said Dr Randeep Guleria, the director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), in an interview to HT on Monday.

Hesitancy was reported among some beneficiaries in the run-up to the January 16 launch of the vaccination drive. Groups of doctors said they were apprehensive or would not prefer to get doses of Covaxin, the vaccine made by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech. This dose has not yet been tested entirely in Phase 3