5 Doctors Scale Rockslides, Cross Gorge To Vaccinate Himachal Villages

Coronavirus Vaccine: Despite the hostile terrain, Himachal Pradesh became the first in India to administer at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose in all its adults.

To visit the village of Malana deep in the Himalayas, a COVID-19 vaccination team scrambled over a landslide that blocked the road the day before, scaled a retaining wall and then began a three-hour trek down and up a river valley.

Despite the hostile terrain, Himachal Pradesh, where Malana is located, earlier this month became the first in India to administer at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose in all its adults.

The steep topography was one challenge overcome by health workers walking for hours or days to reach remote villages and another was religious beliefs, as the tourism-dependent state immunised its roughly 5 million adults.

On Sept. 14, a team of five led by district health officer Dr Atul Gupta set out to Malana to administer second vaccine doses.