PIC: HEALTH CENTRE
CAPTION
File photo of people outside the Margao Urban Health centre.
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DECLINING TREND
1)
While the initial response was overwhelming when vaccination started around three months ago, there’s a gradual drop in locals lining up at the two vaccination centres
2)
Healthcare workers pointed out that they have drawn the attention of the district authorities as well as senior health officials over the lukewarm response
3)
A senior health officer expressed helplessness over the situation, stressing on a concerted drive to convince and mobilize the people to turn up for the vaccination
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SUNDAY VACCINATION
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MARGAO UHC
Total vaccination: 119
Frontline workers: 107
Others: 12
TB HOSPITAL
Total vaccination: 55
Frontline workers: 40
Others: 15
MARGAO
Where have all the Madgavkars and Fatordekars, in the age group of 45 years and above gone? Have they all been vaccinated against deadly Coronavirus?
Doesn’t really seem so, if one goes by registration records for vaccination at the Margao Urban Health Centre and TB Hospital, Monte Hill “ both centres in the city where people from Margao and Fatorda can walk in for anti-Covid doses.
Health care workers are baffled over the poor turn out of citizens from the Margao muncicipal area, so much so that Margao Urban Health centre’s Dr Anju Kharangate had to send an SOS to Margao Municipal Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes to activate the City Fathers and mobilize citizens for the vaccination programme.
Dr Kharangate’s worry and anxiety is not entirely misplaced. While the initial response of local citizens was overwhelming when the vaccination had started around three months ago, there’s a gradual drop in the number of locals lining up at the two vaccination centres with each passing day.
Healthcare workers pointed out that they have drawn the attention of the district authorities as well as senior health officials over the lukewarm response of the local population to the ongoing vaccination drive.
Otherwise, consider the vaccination statistics available from the two city-based centres of the last two days. On May 29, the total number of persons who received the jab at the TB hospital centre atop Monte Hill was put at 222. A close look at the statistics, however, revealed that frontline workers comprised majority of the beneficiaries, who took the vaccine at the centre. Of the total 222 vaccinated, frontline workers were put at 182, with the remaining 22 comprising of local residents.
The situation at the TB hospital on Sunday was no better. Only 55 persons turned up to take the jab, of which 40 persons were frontline workers, and the remaining 15 locals.
Similar has been the story at the Margao Urban Health centre, If as many as 218 persons were vaccinated at the UHC on Saturday, the major component of the persons, around 183 to be precise, turned out were frontline workers. A similar story unfolded at the Margao UHC on Sunday. Of the total 119 persons vaccinated at the centre, as many as 107 persons turned out were frontline workers, with the remaining 12 persons considered as local citizens.
These statistics, officials say is just the tip of the ground situation, prevailing for quite some time, with no strategy in place to get the people out of their homes for vaccination. “It is indeed sad that when both the centres has the capacity to inoculate 1000 persons a day, not even half the available capacity is being put to use for want of response”, officials pointed out.
A senior health officer expressed helplessness over the situation, stressing on a concerted drive to convince and mobilize the people to turn up for the vaccination.
Margao MLA and Opposition Leader Digambar Kamat said the initial confusion on vaccination started when contradictory statements were issued by the government on giving approvals to vaccines. The BJP government gave approval to Covaxin without completion of phase 3 trials. These actions created doubts and sense of insecurity in the minds of the people, he added.
