Create vaccination ring around Covid hit areas: Govt

The Centre has asked state governments to implement ‘ring vaccination’ around districts showing a high test positivity rate of over 10%. Ring vaccination is a technical term used to inoculate susceptible individuals near the area of an outbreak. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the health ministry have asked state governments to identify an area of Covid-19 outbreak especially in districts showing high test positivity rate of over 10% and then implement the concept of ring vaccination.“Earlier, we had asked the states to follow the protocol of test, track, treat and vaccinate in these districts,” a senior health ministry official said. “But now, even with vaccination, a finer strategy has been devised. The states have been asked to actively identify these areas of outbreak and then vaccinate individuals around that area so that they are protected against the virus.”The state governments are employing this strategy to ensure that there is no spread of the virus to other districts. Odisha, which has three districts reporting a high positivity of over 10%, has imposed a lockdown in 10 districts with high positivity. It has also prioritised vaccination in urban areas near these districts.“This is being done first by prioritising the second doses of people above 45 plus and then moving to areas where people have not taken a single dose,” a senior government official said.States are now using CoWIN data and juxtaposing it with electoral rolls to track people in priority groups who are due for their second doses.“We are now concentrating on areas which have not seen Covid-19 cases,” Haryana additional chief secretary (health) Rajeev Arora said. “We are tracking people polling stationwise to see who has not been vaccinated. The district immunisation officers have been told that just sending a simple text message to them would not work. We need to persuade them to take the second shot by going to their homes. Transport is being arranged in rural villages to bring them and drop them back from vaccination centres.”Undertaking such an intensive drive in rural and peri urban areas ensures the people are better protected against any possible spread to their area. Ring vaccination was actively used during smallpox vaccination programme. It was successful as it involved vaccinating all close contacts of an infected individual thereby creating a ‘ring’ of people around him who were protected against the disease.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3jVp0t0