Persistence is key for officials on gruelling doorstep vax duty
New Delhi: As the Delhi government's door-to-door campaign to get those above the age of 45 vaccinated continues to reach the interior-most parts of the Capital, district officials, Block Level Officers and party workers are hitting the ground day in and day out — facing a myriad of challenges in the process of convincing the remaining population to get their jabs.
While some residents say they are afraid of what side effects the vaccines may have, many others are favouring one vaccine over the other based on rumours and curiously, in some areas many are favouring Covaxin specifically because of the shorter interval between both doses.
But the campaign to identify those above 45, register them for vaccination at polling booths, and get them vaccinated has seen slow going so far. According to officials in multiple district administrations across the city, while the process of reaching out to possible beneficiaries has been robust, getting them to show up at the jab centres has been considerably harder.
One district official explained that the first objective is to identify those who are due to get their jabs. He went on to say that a team of BLO and district officials then visits these residents to issue them registration slips, which have a vaccine slot booked for them.
But after this is where it gets tricky. "Once registered, we give them a reminder call the day before to confirm their attendance. But despite efforts, around 60-70 per cent actually show up at the centre," one district official said, who is handling the programme for a section of the Central district.
After this, all that officials can do is "mop-up work", the district official said, explaining that from hereon, they keep calling the remaining residents with reminders at regular intervals and political party workers keep visiting their neighbourhoods, trying to convince them to get their jabs.
In North Delhi, AAP worker Yogita Maurya hits the ground almost every day with an entourage of her party colleagues and on several occasions ends up having to convince the same person more than once to get their vaccines. "Most are just afraid of what they hear through word-of-mouth - all rumours. But we do the best we can to convince them. We are locals and we know them, so they tend to trust us eventually," she said.
One such resident Millennium Post encountered on one of Maurya's daily visits, was 38-year-old Savita, who said she was waiting for Covaxin as it was better. But when asked why she thought it was better, she said, "I don't know, people said so I thought it is better."
Another district official in the West district said that this process is taking time as field workers have to be persistent when reaching out to beneficiaries. "It has been slow but officials are at it day in and day out," the senior official said.
