IS THE WORST OVER?

Administering 871 million doses of Co-vid vaccines between March 1—when India opened up the vaccination drive to its general public—and September 28 is no mean feat. Given the country’s size and population, not only did officials and vaccinators have an enormous target to chase, but they also encountered infrastructure challenges, difficult and remote terrain, cultural sensitivities and a great deal of misinformation among people, leading to vaccine hesitancy. The dedicated and tireless efforts of thousands of healthcare workers employed under the national vaccination programme helped beat the odds and gave us some heartening success stories.

Take, for instance, the case of 92-year-old Mad-havi Pillai from Kerala’s Palakkad district. A widow who lives under the care of two full-time house helps, Pillai had little hope of making it to the nearest vaccination centre for the jab. Help came by way of a local anganwadi worker, who personally accompanied Pillai to the centre for the inoculation. In Himachal Pradesh, which has completed first dose vaccination for its entire eligible population, vaccinators trekked on foot through 20 km of mountainous territory to reach the remote village of Baloth, in Chamba district, and set up a vaccination camp. They set up another camp in the middle of a wildlife sanctuary to cater to a bedridden patient from Hillotwan.

“What we have achieved is tremendous. The pace of vaccination is only going up; this is particularly notable given the sheer scale of covering such a large and geo-graphically spread out population,” says Dr V.K. Paul, chairman of the national taskforce for Covid. “About two-thirds of the adult population has been given one dose of the vaccine; almost a quarter