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Giving small gifts, reaching out to beneficiaries by phone calls and SMS, and issuing tokens are some of the ways to woo people to get their Covid vaccines during the special vaccination camps being held every Sunday in Tamil Nadu since September 12.
Setting an ambitious target for Sunday, the Tamil Nadu government hopes to exceed its first camp performance of 28.91 lakh vaccinations (September 12) on a single day.
Also see: India will ramp up Covid vaccine production capacity
With not more than 2 lakh people getting vaccinated on weekdays in the last few days, how is that the State government able to vaccinate such a large number during the special camps? It is through collaborative efforts of various stakeholders, answered TS Selvavinayagam, Director of Public Health & Preventive Medicine, who has been in the forefront of dealing with the State’s response to the Covid pandemic and spearheading a vaccination drive right from day one in the State.
Encourage vaccination
“We have around 25 lakhs beneficiaries who are due for the second dose and we will contact them over phone, SMS, tokens, small gifts (like fruit basket) by local bodies and also direct mobilisation through our field functionaries in addition to our health care workers. We are involving officials from all departments including social, education, revenue and police. It is the combined efforts of all,” he told BusinessLine .
“We have around 50 lakhs vaccines as of now and are planning for 30,000 camps on Sunday. We are trying to exceed our first camp performance of 29 lakhs on a single day,” he said.
Also see: Covid-19 vaccination: India inoculated over 79 lakh people on October 8
Most of the beneficiaries come on their own. It is like a festival on Sundays wherein vaccination camps are conducted closer to their home and along with neighbours they join, Selvavinayagam said.
“However, we cannot make it mandatory, but we can only suggest the importance of vaccination. For example, I released one video on necessity for Covid vaccination where 87 per cent of the deaths are happening in unvaccinated people,” he added.
Over 5 crore doses
Nearly, 64 per cent of the eligible population in the State has been given one dose of vaccination. Over 5 crores doses have been given so far. If the State government achieves the target of over 25 lakhs on Sunday, it would mean that over 1 crore doses were administered in the last five Sundays.
Vaccination during Sunday special camps
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