Behind Himachal's Gold Medal in Vaccination Sprint, Was a Full Throttle Community-Govt Machinery

Himachal Pradesh’s sprint to become the first state to provide first dose of vaccine to all adults has truly been a community effort.

According to a report by The Indian Express, office-bearers of its district- and state-level legal service authorities, and the para-legal volunteers came together through YouTube videos, online camps and door-to-door visits.

Himachal Pradesh became the first state in India to administer the first dose of vaccine against Covid-19 to 100 per cent of its adult population. The state health department is also undertaking a mop-up exercise to ensure no eligible person is excluded from the vaccination drive. And to ensure that, a vaccination team on Wednesday flew to a remote village of Kangra district to inoculate the left-out population.

Chief Minister Jairam Thakur had directed the health department to conduct a mop-up exercise to cover all the eligible individuals with at least one dose of the vaccine. Himachal Pradesh’s population according to the 2011 census is around 68.65 lakhs, and the state has achieved the feat of vaccinating all the adult population with at least one dose.

On one such occasion, ealth officials travelled 20 kilometres over four-five hours to reach vaccination camps in the remote village of Baloth.

Then, vaccination teams reached Bhutan Pomail village by boat due to the lack of road connectivity. And they set up a camp for a bedridden patient in Hillotwan in the middle of a wildlife sanctuary; it required a trek of 10 kilometers to reach there.

“The strategy was to handle hesitancy first, followed by leg work — which gave us good results,” Amitabh Avasthi, health secretary of Himachal Pradesh, told News18.com.

“We first fought vaccine hesitancy by engaging with Gompas (monks) of Lahaul-Spiti and other tribal leaders of various districts,” he said, adding that the shot administered to Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in Dharamshala helped the cause.

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