Officials fret as Malana villagers refuse vaccine citing deity’s diktat

SHIMLA: For two months, health care workers have been trekking 7km every alternate day of the week to reach the remote villages of Malana in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh. Their aim: to take the Covid-19 vaccines to a remote corner of the country -to the villages nestled in the Himalayas at an altitude of around 9,900 feet.

But their efforts have been in vain.

Not a single person in the two villages in Malana, with around 2,000 residents, has been inoculated yet. Health care workers say villagers, who believe they are the descendents of Greek king Alexander, repeatedly refused to get the jab because it is against their beliefs.

The residents of Malana have followed their traditions for centuries now. Most decisions are taken by their own local governing bodies, but the local deity -Jamdagni Rishi or Jamlu Devta -- has the final say.

“I’ve been trying to convince the villagers, but they refuse citing the deity’s diktat. In 2015, it took me three months to convince mothers to get their children vaccinated (for newborns).

But this time, not a single person in the village has come forward for vaccination and my attempts to convince them have proven futile,” said 35-year-old Nirmala Devi, an accredited social health activist (ASHA) who has been working in the Kullu district for several years and has been walking up from the nearest bus station in Jari to Malana for weeks now.

Villagers in the area refused to comment on the matter.

“Himachalis have faith in mystical powers of deities. The deity culture is a part of our daily life but at the same time the

LONDON/FRANKFURT: Britain deployed public health officials, supported by the army, to distribute coronavirus tests doorto-door in two northern England towns on Saturday in an effort to contain a fast-spreading variant that threatens plans to lift all lockdown restrictions next month.

Cases of a strain first detected in India have more than doubled in a week, defying a sharp nationwide downward trend in infections won by months of restrictions and a rapid vaccination campaign.

The government’s Scientific Group for Emergencies (SAGE) says the variant detected in India, formally known as B.1.617.2, could be up to 50% more transmissible than one first recorded in southeast England last year that is now the UK’S dominant strain. But they say there is a high level of uncertainty about the exact figure.

“If the virus is significantly more transmissible, we are likely to face some hard choices,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday. “I have to level with you that this could be a serious disruption to our progress.”

He said the next stage of lockdown-easing measures would take place as planned on Monday, but warned the variant might delay plans to lift all restrictions, including social distancing and face-covering rules, on June 21.

More than two-thirds of British adults have received the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and 37% have had both doses.

The government is shortening the gap between doses for people over 50 from 12 to eight weeks in a bid to give them more protection.

Meanwhile, Germany’s health agency has reclassified Britain as a coronavirus “risk area” over concerns about the spread of the variant detected in India, but travellers will still be able to avoid quarantine under updated rules.

If the virus is significantly more transmissible, we are likely to face some hard choices BORIS JOHNSON, UK PM