KALPETTA: Wayanad has become the first district in the country to vaccinate nearly 100 per cent of its targeted eligible population against COVID. According to the district administration’s press note, 6,51,967 people are eligible to be inoculated in Wayanad. Of them, 6,15,729 have been given the first dose of vaccine till 7pm on Sunday.
As many as 36,238 people are yet to be vaccinated. Of them, 24,529 are people who tested COVID positive in the last three months and can’t take the vaccine now and 1,243 are not willing to be vaccinated. The remaining people are either in quarantine or have contraindication.
Apart from these categories of people who can't take vaccine now, nearly 100% of the population eligible for inoculation have been vaccinated. District Collector Adeela Abdulla said achieving this was a tough task and attributed the success to the team work.
"The vaccination process started in the district on January 16 and the district administration set the target and began preparations in February to achieve the first district in the country to have fully vaccinated the population. From there, we saw a massive participation by eight departments in the district such as local self-government, revenue, health, disaster management, transport, police, Kudumbashree and Scheduled Tribe development. Apart from this, we have received immense support from MLAs, MPs and Tourism Minister PA Mohamad Riyas," said Adeela.
The district authorities administered the vaccine doses to 96 per cent of people through government institutions. "Though the number of population is small, that single factor can't help achieving this target. There are districts in the country which have fewer population than Wayanad," Adeela added.
She also said the achievement of nearly 100 per cent vaccinated district will boost the tourism sector. “Tourism has been one of the main sources of income for Wayanad. Through this mega vaccination drive, the district administration also targeted to keep the tourism sector in the district open and active as soon as possible.”
At the same time, the officials had faced a lot of constraints in the mission. "As the number of tribal people is more in the district, we had faced difficulties in terms of terrain, shortage of staff, machinery and climate to reach some remote hamlets. In association with Scheduled Tribe development department and NGOs, we conducted special drives like March Mission, Mop-up April and Gothra Raksha May among the tribal people to achieve the target. We had even provided refreshments to bring them to vaccination centres," said District Medical Officer Dr R Renuka.
Already, more than 2,13,277 people have received their second dose of COVID vaccine. People who received the first dose of vaccine have been urged to take their second dose without fail when their turn comes.