Chennai, July 9(BPNS)
Sikkampattu village in Ulundurpet block and Devi Agaram in Tirkovilur block became the first two villages in Tamil Nadu to achieve a hundred percent coverage of their eligible population with the first dose of the vaccine. A statement from the State Public health department on Friday said.
Both these villages are in Kallakuruchi district of Tamil Nadu.
Interestingly pregnant and lactating mothers were vaccinated in the drive conducted in the ten blocks of the district. In Sikkampettu village there is a total population of 1026 and excluding those who cannot vaccinate due to medical grounds and those whose names are deleted from the electoral rolls, the eligible population was 790 and this included 15 pregnant women and all of them were vaccinated against Covid -19 in the village itself.
Devi Agaram village also vaccinated 1294 people which was its total eligible population.
The Kallakuruchi district collector P.N. Sreedhar said that a spirited team of doctors, health workers, and revenue officials joined hands to achieve the milestone. While speaking to IANS, Sreedhar who was prior to this posting actively involved the containing the virus in Greater Chennai Corporation said, “We were planning to vaccinate at least one village in a block and there are ten blocks in the district. The Block development officer was given in charge of each block and volunteers and ASHA workers conducted a door to door, campaign to make the vaccination drive successful.”
The district collector also said that efforts are on to convert Kallakuruchi into a hundred percent vaccinated district and the health workers and revenue officials are working overtime to achieve the feat.
Deputy Director of Health Services, Sathish Kumar said that Accredited Social Health Activists(ASHA) conducted door-to-door surveys in the two villages and prepared a list of the eligible populations above 18 years of age. The names were matched with electoral rolls and then awareness was created to get the people vaccinated.
District collector said, “Initially there was hesitancy on the part of people and specifically the disabled people were reluctant to vaccinate. We conducted awareness programs and short videos were created to increase the awareness and now there is a turnaround. We have almost vaccinated 60 to 70% of the whole eligible population in the district and a massive drive is to being conducted.”
