SHILLONG, July 7: Meghalaya seems to be fighting a losing battle against the COVID-19 pandemic with a high number of cases being reported on a daily basis, mostly from rural parts of the state even as vaccine hesitancy is proving to be a major stumbling block to achieving herd immunity.
As per official figures released by the Health Department on Wednesday, a total of 7,74,335 doses of vaccine have been administered to the beneficiaries including 6,83,518 first doses and 90,817 second doses. Calculated in percentage with 20 lakh as the targetted population, around 38.7% of the beneficiaries have been administered the first dose of vaccine while a meagre 4.5% has been fully vaccinated.
On July 5, a TV channel had run a story on the progress of vaccination in the Northeastern states, showing a chart of the percentage of people vaccinated in the eight states of the region.
As per the channel, only 17% of the population in Meghalaya had been vaccinated with the first dose while 2.2% had received their second dose – the lowest among the eight states. Sikkim turned out to be the best performer with 68% coverage of the first dose while Tripura had the highest percentage of 14.7 for the second dose. The figures could not be independently verified by The Shillong Times.
The vaccine hesitancy has now grown to become the biggest challenge for the Health department as it struggles to break the shackles of the second wave of COVID-19 even as the challenges of a third wave loom large.
Amid the growing apprehensions, DHS (MI) Aman War on Wednesday claimed that enough has been said and done to spread awareness on the need for vaccination and now it was up to the people to decide and act.
“We can only give advice. It is up to the people to decide whether they want to listen to medical professionals or those who are not. Vaccination is not mandatory and will not be forced on anybody but seeing how this disease has affected people we have been trying to use all means to put it across to the people that vaccination is the key,” he added.
It is noteworthy that Meghalaya is struggling to get its targeted population of around 20 lakh to take the vaccine owing to hesitancy triggered by social media posts and damning comments of some cult leaders who have been convincing their followers to avoid the two shots.
Reiterating that vaccination is the key to effective management of the pandemic in the state, Dr War said, “It is no longer the time to say ‘please get vaccinated’. I think enough has been said already and now it is the responsibility of each and every household and individual to judge for themselves and decide accordingly.”
Dr War made it clear that medics in the state will treat all patients, whether vaccinated or not. “It would be a big relief for the healthcare workers if they know that a patient is vaccinated because we have witnessed how the infection changes its course. Without vaccination a patient’s condition may turn from bad to worse and might even reach a stage where no matter what treatment we provide it becomes meaningless,” War stated.
“Doctors will treat people without bias but I will stress that treatment of patients who have not been vaccinated becomes complicated and often the disease takes a turn for the worse,” he reiterated.
Insisting that there was no way forward other than vaccination he said, “Last year we had nothing. This year we have something (vaccine) at least.”
