Making good with two vials of Covishield in 8 villages

Last month, the administration in the Dibang Valley district of Arunachal Pradesh was faced with a brainteaser puzzle: how to share two vials of Covid-19 vaccine between as many as eight villages. In that sparsely-populated belt that borders China, there are only 20 eligible inhabitants (aged over 45), so the administration had received just two vials of Covishield, deputy commissioner Minga Sherpa, told ET on the phone. But those individuals were spread out over the district — which has a population of 8,000. Half that population lives in district headquarters itself, with the rest distributed unevenly across 135 villages.

Welcome to some of India’s most remote and hostile terrain, which have gone to extraordinary lengths to carry out the vaccination drive. Local administrations have outmanoeuvered some peculiar impediments, and have managed to cover higher-than average percentages of their population with Covid-19 jabs.

The thinly-populated Abujhmad highlands of Chhattisgarh, for example, have a high presence of Naxals in the region. And in Lakshwadweep, with just 10 inhabited islands, the administration has faced a literal storm that immobilised the choppers used to reach these islands, as well as superstitious beliefs that fuelled vaccine hesitancy, according to officials who ET spoke with.

Yet, these areas have managed better vaccination coverage compared to many urban centres. For example, in Lakshadweep, 77% of the eligible population (55,427 people) had taken the first dose by June 9, according to its collector S Asker Ali. “People here are very religious. We had to take the help of some religious leaders to tackle vaccine hesitancy,” he said, also adding that the Union Territory had so far managed to procure 80,000 doses, 45% more than needed to administer at least one dose to each eligible person.

In Leh district of the Union Territory of Ladakh, 1.1 lakh people have had at least one dose, according to CoWin statistics — remarkably high coverage, given that its population as per the 2011 census is 1.33 lakh.

Meanwhile, the Dibang valley has reached 45% of those above 45 years with at least one dose. “In many areas, our healthcare workers are visiting houses of targeted individuals, almost door-to-door,” deputy commissioner Sherpa said, adding that those aged between 18 and 44 years will still need to travel to vaccination camps. As most areas of the district have no mobile connectivity, health workers note down details on paper, and update the CoWin site when back at district HQ.
Mobile connectivity has been a challenge in some pockets of Central India too. “Most parts of Abujhmad don’t have road or mobile connectivity,” says Dharmesh Sahu, district magistrate of Narayanpur under which this 39,00-sq. km. highland falls. “Motivating the locals for vaccination is a big problem. But I have noticed, people in the 18-44 age group are far more enthusiastic,” he said, also adding that 50% of the eligible population in the district have already got the first dose.

Abujhmad is home to the Abujhmaria tribe, classified by the government as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG), and also has a high Naxal presence. P Sundarraj, Inspector General of Police in Bastar, said health workers regularly visit the interiors with no escort at all. “But in case of Covid vaccination, we always remain alert,” he said.