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Maharashtra: Special drive at small town in Washim district aims to achieve 100% vaccination by June 20

Risod-Malegaon MLA Amit Zhanak said the current drive, which started on June 6, is a special one undertaken with Samta Foundation to break vaccine hesitancy.

Risod-Malegaon MLA Amit Zhanak with the team. (Express Photo)Risod-Malegaon MLA Amit Zhanak with the team. (Express Photo)

A small town in Washim district of Vidarbha with a rough population of 30,000, Risod may well become the first town of its size in Maharashtra to achieve 100 per cent vaccination. An ambitious drive by local authorities and Samta Foundation has taken up the initiative, under which 10,000 people in the town have received their first jab of the Covid-19 vaccine, so far.

Washim district in Amravati division of Vidarbha witnessed high hesitancy around vaccination during the initial days of the drive. To break the hesitancy, however, the district collector and other officials took up special initiatives for which they took their jabs at the village-level primary health centres (PHC) instead of the civil hospital.

Risod-Malegaon MLA Amit Zhanak said the current drive, which started on June 6, is a special one undertaken with Samta Foundation. The owners of the foundation have their roots in this town and this was their way of offering help, Zhanak said.

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Risod-Malegaon MLA Amit Zhanak with the team. (Express Photo)

“Samta Foundation has procured 3,000 vials of Covishield, which will be used for this drive,” he added.

As part of the drive, volunteers and staff of the municipal council of Risod conducted door-to-door survey and distributed slips to people. Registrations were also done by them. The town is divided into five vaccination centres, where people can go and get their shot at the stipulated time.

Festive offer

Zhanak said every centre was within walking distance from every corner of the town and, thus, easy to access. “For this special drive, we have take permission to vaccinate everyone in the town aged above 18,” he said.

Extensive awareness campaigns helped as during the first week, every centre was able to vaccinate around 200 to 250 people per day. With the monsoon’s progress, however, and with farming activity picking up, the drive has slackened to an extent with only 100 to 150 vaccinations daily.

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“We aim to vaccinate at least 90 per cent of the town by June 20,” Zhanak said. The central government has announced a complete overhaul of the vaccination programme from June 21, under which every adult will get free access.

First uploaded on: 15-06-2021 at 20:04 IST
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