SHILLONG, Nov 23: South West Garo Hills has become a model district for the state government in its bid to achieve a 100% vaccination target by Christmas.
“South West Garo Hills is the best district in vaccination coverage followed by East Jaintia Hills and West Garo Hills. SWGH has really given us a lot of hope,” Sampath Kumar, Principal Secretary Health told The Shillong Times.
He said a lot has been learnt from the SWGH model and emulating it would help reach the target. “What we have understood is that the way vaccine hesitancy has been portrayed is not true,” he added.
Constant counselling by the district administration and health officials helped in making the people confident about the vaccine in SWGH, he said.
“The door-to-door campaign reassured the people busy with eking out a livelihood. The unvaccinated are mostly in the rural areas, but they are willing to take the vaccine now,” Kumar said.
Hard work put in by the field workers has improved the vaccination percentage in other districts, including East Khasi Hills where the inoculation level is among the lowest.
According to official data, a total of 19,35,506 COVID doses were administrated till Tuesday, 11,52, 635 of them being cumulative first dose.
