“I didn’t feel any pain” says Purna Laxmi Debbarma, an 85-year-old from Ramkrishna Para in West Tripura district as she gets her initially shot of covid vaccine. “I will be healthy with this vaccine. And I am happy”, she continued. Today, Tripura is one of the highest vaccinated states in the nation with more than 98 per cent of its 45 plus population vaccinated against COVID-19. Over 80 per cent of the 18 plus population has also been vaccinated at least with the initially COVID dose. From initial vaccine hesitancy amongst a big group of men and women to irregular vaccine provide to lastly becoming a vaccine trailblazer in the nation, here’s how the tiny Northeast state accomplished the vaccine feat.
How did the state address vaccine hesitancy?
The initially challenge that required to be addressed was Tripura’s 37 lakh population spread across eight districts. Tribal hamlets in the state have been poorly connected and had rough terrains. Lack of awareness on COVID amongst the population was the next significant challenge in the state. This led to a concerted push to drive home the message that vaccines are protected for use. Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb began with the televised appeal as early as March this year. Personalised letters from district Chief Medical Officers have been also sent out in Hindi, Bengali and other regional dialects–Kokborok. Awareness campaigns by way of public announcement systems and pamphlets have been also distributed in regional languages. Then comes thousands of vaccination camps that have been carried out across the state. The state government employed an army of 50,000 staff alongwith 20,000 healthcare workers, safety personnel and police to take vaccine to far-flung villages–Nabachandpara and Rambhaktapara in West Tripura or Gandacherra and Raishyabari in Dhalai district. The vaccination drive was even taken to the tribal hamlets with two-3 households.
The image changed steadily
Talking about the vaccination camps and door-to-door visits, Dr Dalia Sharma, a Community Health Officer (CHO) at the Shantinagar overall health sub-centre in West Tripura district, who was also the portion of campaign mentioned that there was some hesitancy amongst men and women about the vaccine, specially in elderlies. Language also became a challenge by then. But ASHA workers and regional organisations, who took portion in the campaign, helped me and steadily issues began altering for the far better. We vaccinated a 99-year-old lady a handful of days ago and she was pretty satisfied following taking the jab.
Success of the vaccine programme
On Tuesday, Chief Minister Shri Biplab Kumar Deb announced the accomplishment of the vaccine programme and wrote, I am satisfied to announce that one hundred per cent vaccinations have been accomplished in 73 gram panchayat locations in unique districts of the state. Tripura held unique drives, to increase the vaccination figures in the state, in two phases — May 25-27 and June 21-22 — in the course of which more than 5 lakh men and women have been vaccinated. Some 102 refrigerators and 20 deep freezers have been also distributed by the state government across the state.
Dr Ishita Guha, District Information Officer, West Tripura mentioned that they have been administering vaccines in significant numbers now. Some days are recording up to 20,000 doses a day. During a unique drive, we administered 50,000 doses in a single day in the West district. While the hesitancy at some level nevertheless remains, some men and women are enthusiastic about taking the jabs, Dr Guha added.
Siddharth Jaiswal, state director, National Health Mission (NHM) mentioned that when the vaccination drive had complete help from absolutely everyone (Chief Minister, volunteers on the field, ASHA and Multi Purpose Workers (MPW)) men and women belonging to regional communities came as a largest help method. We had some difficulty in the starting as there have been rumours and men and women have been not sure about the vaccine. But ASHA workers spoke to locals and ensured that vaccination is the only protected way at this point of time, he added.