Poor response from public for taking COVID-19 vaccines in Tirunelveli

TIRUNELVELI Though the State government and the health and family department officials have been con

Though the State government and the health and family department officials have been conducting health camps regularly for administering the COVID-19 vaccines to the eligible people, there appears to be a slackness to get inoculated voluntarily, officials claimed here on Sunday.

Speaking to reporters, the officials said that they have 284 centres functioning on all the seven days in the district exclusively for giving the vaccine dose to the people above 18 years. The officials said that Mayor P.M. Saravanan and Deputy Mayor K.R. Raju launched a health camp at the Tirunelveli Railway Junction.

However, there has been a continued non-cooperation from the people to step into the centres on their own and get the vaccines inoculated. Since the government or the officials cannot compel the public, there has not been any major improvement in the percentage of people who had got the doses.

While, there were around four lakh people above 18 years and 90 % of them had taken the first dose, while a little close to 70% people had taken the second dose. With regard to the 15-17 years age group, 98 % had got the first dose while only 65 % had received the second dose till date.

The officials said that in many districts and corporations, the second dose was also nearing 90 % coverage. With people not showing interest and claiming that the active cases of COVID-19 had dropped substantially, they refused to turn up, the officials said and added that many centres wore a deserted look with the staff alone present.

However, in the neighbouring Thoothukudi district, the health department officials said that the response to the special camps were good. In some of the residential areas under the Corporation limits, there were good number of people present to get the vaccine shots.

According to the Joint Director (Health Services) Murugavel, out of the 1417 centres, including 200 in the city and 416 mobile camps, there were good turnout for second dose and the booster dose of the vaccine.