Don’t let the vaccination drive wither away

Having gotten off to an impressive start, the government's vaccination drive seems to be losing steam at a most crucial time. The government's plan to inoculate 70 lakh people in the first month has not materialised—only about 49 lakh people have so far been vaccinated. And on Monday, the daily count of people who took the vaccine dropped to 70,933, which was around two lakh in the third week of February. Also, on Monday, the daily number of deaths from the virus rose to its highest in 10 weeks. And the number of people infected reached near 3,000. So, while the virus is back to its menacing best, the number of people receiving the vaccine is decreasing.

As this newspaper reported on Tuesday, many people, particularly in the rural areas, know very little about the vaccination drive, which is one of the main factors driving down the number of people receiving the vaccine. The majority of people interviewed by this newspaper said that they would have taken the jab, had they known about it. This is a most unfortunate situation, where people are not being able to take a potentially lifesaving vaccine, simply because they are unaware of it. Another reason why the number of people showing up at the vaccination centres is dropping, according to experts, is because of the hassles involved in the registration process and the fact that people have to take a printout of their registration document to the vaccination centres. Not everyone—and especially the poor—has access to computers and printers, which makes this step of the process questionable. The government must, therefore, rethink many aspects of this drive before it withers away completely and the vaccines go to waste.

As the number of daily infections and deaths soar once again, we must come to terms with the harsh reality that the pandemic might still be far from over. It is dangerous for us to think otherwise at this moment. Therefore, the government must double down on its vaccination drive and raise awareness among the populace regarding the high rate of infections and the potential benefits of getting vaccinated. It must also evaluate the weak-points of its drive—for example, the complexity of the registration process for some—and come up with simple solutions to them.

So far, it seems that the poor and the people from rural areas have been left behind in the ongoing vaccination drive. And that leaves our entire population vulnerable to the disease, whether we are aware of it or not. Thus, the government must ensure that they too are receiving the vaccine as soon as possible.