Exams, dependence on adults for consent, fear reasons for low turnout
Twenty days after Nagaland started inoculating children in the age group of 12-14 years, the state has managed to vaccinate only around 2835 children in this cohort till Saturday, with a senior government official attributing the low turnout to the beginning of exams, the dependence of younger children on adults for consent and also due to fear and general misinformation.
Data provided by Nagaland government’s health department shows that only 25 children were vaccinated on the first day of vaccination for this age group on March 16, which is also the National Vaccination Day.
Between March 16 and 22, Nagaland inoculated 234 children in the 12-14 age group and between March 23 and April 2, another 2576 children were given their first vaccine dose, according to government data, which is merely 3.03 % of the target in this cohort.
A senior government official said the turnout in vaccination centers has been lower than expected even as they expressed hope that the numbers will go up in the coming days.
According to the government data, Mokokchung has the highest number of CorBEvax benefactors at 1013 while districts like Mon, Longleng and Wokha still stands at Zero as of April 2.
A senior official of the CMO Mokokchung, said that the department have started Vaccination drives in various schools in the district. With many students appearing exams and vaccination drives in rural areas not been implemented fully as yet, the official was hopeful that the numbers will increase with time.
When asked about the reason for children refusing to be jabbed, parental consent, fear and general misinformation were mostly the reason, the official said.
With billions of people receiving COVID-19 vaccines in a relatively short period, it’s not unexpected that rare side effects would be observed. Although the data suggests the vaccines are extremely effective and generally safe.
According to the Nagaland government’s data, the State has about 93,466 children in the 12-14 age cohort. Children aged 12-14 years are being administered only the CorBEvax vaccine, manufactured by Biological E Limited. CorBEvax is the country’s first indigenously developed receptor binding domain (RBD) protein sub-unit vaccine against Covid-19.
Nagaland on Sunday reported 1 fresh Covid-19 case, taking the total tally to 35477 positive cases with 755 Covid-19 deaths in the state so far, according to data shared by the state health department.
Amid a steep decline in Covid-19 cases in the State and all restrictions lifted by the State government, the fear of the coronavirus among the public is in a sharp decline. And only time will tell on whether the vaccination graph would increase.