A man seen perched on a tree to escape vaccination in Ballia in a video shared by health officials.
Lucknow:
A team of health officials in Ballia in Uttar Pradesh, on a campaign to raise awareness about Covid vaccination, have faced cases of extreme hesitation in a remote village, highlighting the need for faster pre-election vaccinations in the most populous state of India.
Ballia is one of UP’s worst performing counties when it comes to general vaccinations in the state. The videos were taken by health officials on Tuesday. One of them shows a man climbing a tree to escape vaccination, another video shows a man wrestling a health officer to the ground.
“Please come down,” a group of people urges a man on a tree.
“I’m not coming down. I don’t want to get stung. I’m scared,” the man replies.
Finally, he admits and works with the health officials.
In another video, a man is seen grappling with health authorities as he tries to escape getting the Covid vaccine.
“I’ll come later for the vaccination, not now,” he says as he runs away.
“Please, take the picture now, why wait,” a health official is heard in the background.
A health official, who oversaw the vaccination campaign, explained the incident: “The videos were taken by health officials during a vaccination campaign. The man who climbed the tree was hesitant at first. We convinced them and had him pricked. In another case, the boatswain worried that we would take him by force and he became aggressive”.
Ballia’s two videos in Uttar Pradesh show the challenges health officials face as they try to get more people vaccinated against the highly contagious coronavirus.
Uttar Pradesh has administered 24 crore doses as part of the nationwide vaccination campaign that was rolled out on January 16 last year, in which health workers (HCWs) were vaccinated in the first phase. The vaccination of frontline workers (FLWs) has started from February 2, 2021.
The first dose of anti-coronavirus vaccines has been administered to more than 95 percent of the eligible population in the state, while the second dose has been administered to about 62 percent, Prime Minister Yogi Adityanath said recently.
In the 15-17 age group, 62.83 lakh vaccine doses have been dispensed out of the target 1.40 crore doses, he said.
