Asha workers strive to meet target as 9.2mn miss 2nd jab
MUMBAI: Padama Dhisal, an accredited social health activist (ASHA) from Kolhapur’s Vadange village, has already visited the house of a 50-year-old woman, due to receive her second jab, four times this month. The woman was due for her second dose in early November. Mid-November, when 42-yearold Dhisal visited the woman for the second time to remind her to take her second dose, the woman said that she was busy with Diwali festivities and missed the date. In the past week, Dhisal has visited the woman twice and the woman said that she was unwell. “I have tried everything to convince her. I even told her that a lot of benefits like the ration shop will be linked to full vaccination soon,” said Dhisal.
The 50-year-old is among the 150-odd people who have missed the second dose in Vadange village alone. She is among the 9.2 million people across the state who have missed the second dose due dates.
Maharashtra’s target population is 91.5 million. While the state is close to 80% first dose coverage, its full vaccination or two-dose coverage is merely 41%. Infectious disease expert Dr Om Srivastava said that one dose definitely provides some protection but the second dose is important to ensure immunity against severe disease and hospitalisation. “The pace of vaccination has definitely slowed down,” said state’s immunisation officer Dr Sachin Desai. “Initially, we dealt with a shortage of doses, there was also a momentary shortage of syringes but the drive stabilised as doses started to come in. But the pace of the drive declined again during Diwali,” he said.
Data from the state shows that the average daily vaccinations dropped from 760,955 in September to 525,121 in October, and further declined to 463,389 this month.
Nearly 70,000 Asha workers like Dhisal have been on the ground throughout the pandemic, encouraging people to get tested, flagging suspected patients in the villages for quarantine and encouraging the population to take the jabs since the Centre rolled out universal adult vaccination on April 30.
Yet, many like Dhisal find themselves struggling to motivate people to get their second jabs on time.