In the long battle against Covid, flickers of encouragement are rare and desperation always seems to be in greater quantities, a feature with a pan-India presence. However, rural Arunachal Pradesh is proving that turning the tide is possible even amid the most trying times and achieving 100% vaccination coverage in several villages across multiple districts is not a trifle achievement when the national average hasn’t attained the double-digit mark. As many as 19 villages in Lower Subansiri have attained a 100% coverage in 45+ age slab and a couple of days before, 5 villages in Changlang also achieved the feat. Although the recipe of success has been quite simple, the results have been high-yielding- people’s participation, stakeholders’ commitment and thorough dedication on part of District Administrations.

It’s a cruel reality that even after 5 months of official vaccination rollout, an acute shortage persists. There are tweaks in policies followed by slugfest between ruling dispensation and opposition parties and blames and counter-blames. For a citizen who is yet to get vaccinated either fully or partly, the raw figures pertaining to national Covid vaccination progress are rather incomprehensible and will fail to provide the reason for the endless wait. As per government data, as of Monday more than 26.68 crore vaccine doses have been provided to states/UTs through Government of India (free of cost channel) and direct state procurement, more than 1.40 crore doses are still available with states/UTs to be administered and more than 96,490 doses are in the pipeline to be supplied within next 3 days. The government data also proudly declare that as on June 14, 2021 (8 am), there were a total of 14,99,771 vaccinations across the country. A first-timer looking at these numbers will feel elated. However, for those following the vaccination episode uninterruptedly since the beginning, it will elicit no real doses of hope. The nation has a population of 136+ crore and for achieving herd immunity against Covid, at least 1 crore people need to be inoculated. As of June 13, only 3.5% of the total population has been fully vaccinated and only 15% has received the first dose. What is worrisome is that there are 11 states where full vaccination coverage (both doses) is less than 5 % currently. Arunachal needs to put special emphasis on the 18-44 age category since only 13% coverage (dose 1) has been attained so far and also on 2nd dose coverage of 45+ where it’s still 15%.

While it’s understandable that it all depends on the ‘health’ of supply from the Centre, it must be the target of the state to utilise the stock in hand in full. Rural Arunachal has shown the way.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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