A team of healthcare workers in UP’s Ballia, out on a Covid vaccination awareness drive, encountered cases of utmost uncertainty in a remote village, emphasizing the need for faster vaccinations ahead of polls in Uttar Pradesh.
Ballia is one of UP's worst-performing districts when it comes to overall vaccinations coverage in the state. The videos were recorded on Tuesday by health officials. One of them dispalys a man climbing a tree to evade vaccination, another video shows a man wrestling a health official to the ground.
"Please come down," a group of people urge a man on a tree.
"I won't come down. I don't want to get jabbed. I am scared," the man replies.
Eventually, he relents and co-operates with the health officials.
In another clip, a man is seen wrestling with healthcare workers as he tries to escape from getting the Covid jab.
"I will come for vaccination later, not now," he says as he runs away.
"Please take the shot now, why wait,' a health official is heard saying in the background.
Elucidating the episode, a healthcare official, who supervised the vaccination drive, stated, "The videos were shot by health officials during a vaccination drive. The man who climbed on the tree was initially hesitant. We convince them and got him jabbed. In the other case, the boatman was scared that we will forcefully take him and hence got aggressive".
The two videos from the state of Uttar Pradesh's Ballia exhibit the challenges health officials face as they try to get more people vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Watch the video:
#WATCH Boatman refuses to take vaccine, mishandles a health care worker
— ANI (@ANI) January 20, 2022
He was apprehensive initially but was convinced eventually to take vaccine. In another instance,a man climbed tree but took the vaccine eventually: Atul Dubey,Block Dev Officer,Reoti
(Source: Viral video) pic.twitter.com/fVk5BGbP46
#WATCH | Ballia, Bihar: Atul Dubey, Block Development Officer, Reoti says, "A man climbed a tree as he didn't want to take the vaccine, but agreed to take the jab after he was convinced by our team."
— ANI (@ANI) January 20, 2022
(Source: Viral Video) pic.twitter.com/aI054zh9Y4
So far, UP has dispensed 24 crore doses under the countrywide vaccination drive that was launched on January 16 last 2021 with healthcare workers getting inoculated in the first phase.
The vaccination of frontline workers began from February 2, 2021.
The first dose of vaccines have been given to more than 95 per cent of the eligible population in the state while the second dose administered to around 62 per cent, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said.
In the 15-17 age group, 62.83 lakh vaccine shots have been given out of the target 1.40 crore doses, he said.
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