69% people in no rush to take Covid-19 vaccine: Survey

LocalCircles, a community social media platform, conducted a survey to understand the general mindset of Indians towards the Covid-19 vaccine.

The survey collected 8,723 responses on the coronavirus vaccine and revealed that 69 per cent maintained that they are in no rush to take a vaccine against the coronavirus. While only 26 per cent of the citizens said they will get the vaccine shot as soon as it becomes available.

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Five per cent said they are health or frontline workers and will get themselves vaccinated on priority through government channels.

Since October 2020, LocalCircles has been collecting responses from citizens to know their approach to taking the Covid-19 vaccine. The survey is aimed at understanding if the percentage of reluctance or hesitancy has increased, reduced, or remains unchanged.

According to a survey conducted in October, the percentage of Indians hesitant to take the Covid-19 vaccine stood at 61 per cent. With vaccine makers Pfizer and Moderna announcing success on efficacy results, the aggregate percentage of citizens in India hesitant about the vaccine reduced to 59 per cent in the November survey.

The vaccine developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca via Serum Institute has come as a hope for India. A survey by LocalCircles, however, showed a dramatic increase in the percentage of citizens to 69 per cent who were hesitant to take a vaccine against coronavirus.

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Another independent survey conducted in December by LocalCircles’ member Dr Abdul Ghafur indicated that the majority of healthcare professionals (55 per cent) were also hesitant of getting the Covid-19 vaccine immediately.

The majority of professionals in the survey maintained that they are worried about side-effects, or not sure about its efficacy. Approximately 60 per cent of these professionals were engaged with a Covid-19 facility.