The Economic Times daily newspaper is available online now.

    Covid vaccination drive: Many hesitant to sign Covaxin consent form

    Synopsis

    Tamil Nadu administered a mere 99 Covaxin doses out of the target of 600 on the first day of the vaccination. On Sunday, the state-administered 90 more Covaxin doses till 2 pm.

    covaxin-reutReuters
    Vaccine hesitancy comes at a time when severe adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) have been reported recently.
    New Delhi: At least three of the 11 states — Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Bihar — that administered Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin on Saturday have pointed out that the beneficiaries were reluctant to sign the consent forms, resulting in less than 50% strike rate on the first day of the public immunisation drive.

    Rajasthan stood out as an exception, saying it faced no hesitancy issues. It administered 314 Covaxin doses out of a target of 600 and also reported no adverse event from the Bharat Biotech vaccine, whose approval has sparked concerns.


    “Our healthcare workers were reluctant in taking Covaxin. The biggest problem is the consent form they need to sign. On the first day we administered less than 200 Covaxin doses. We have opened Covaxin vaccination centres at super speciality and big government hospitals. We hope to create more awareness,” Telangana health minister Eatala Rajender said.

    Tamil Nadu too red-flagged the issue at a coordination meeting convened by union health minister Harsh Vardhan on Saturday.

    ETD-1-18012021

    ‘Dispelling Doubts’
    State health secretary J Radhakrishnan is believed to have said at the meeting that healthcare workers were reluctant to sign consent forms, but the state government was expecting to tide over the issue by spreading more awareness.

    Tamil Nadu administered a mere 99 Covaxin doses out of the target of 600 on the first day of the vaccination. On Sunday, the state administered 90 more Covaxin doses till 2 pm.

    Each of the 11 states, which agreed to administer Covaxin, have dedicated six vaccination centres for the purpose. These centres were restricted to the government hospitals. None of these states could achieve the target.

    Bihar, which saw one of its Covaxin vaccination centres at Patna Medical College meet the full target of 100 doses, came close to the halfway mark. “We administered nearly 300 doses. AIIMS Patna director PK Singh took Covaxin shot to send a message that it is safe. We hope that this would encourage other health workers and dispel all doubts.”

    Rajasthan, which performed well on this score, said translating the consent form to Hindi helped. “We had received the consent form and we translated it to Hindi so that the healthcare workers could understand what they were signing. On the first day, we have achieved 314 vaccinations at Covaxin centres. We did not face any reluctance on forms but hope to improve on numbers this week,” Rajasthan National Health Mission director Naresh Thakral told ET.

    Rajasthan also did not report a single case of adverse event following immunisation at the six Covaxin centres, which are in Jaipur.

    Vaccine hesitancy comes at a time when severe adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) have been reported recently. Twenty-nine elderly people died in Norway following administration of Pfizer vaccine on Saturday. Australia’s scientific community has raised doubts over the efficacy of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.





    (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)
    (Catch all the Business News, Breaking News Budget 2024 News, Budget 2024 Live Coverage, Events and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.)

    Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.

    ...more

    (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)
    (Catch all the Business News, Breaking News Budget 2024 News, Budget 2024 Live Coverage, Events and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.)

    Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.

    ...more
    The Economic Times

    Stories you might be interested in