Uttar Pradesh: In a bizarre case of vaccine hesitancy, villagers in Uttar Pradesh’s Barabanki jumped into the Sarayu river to escape getting vaccinated when a team of health officials reached the village to inoculate them.
As per the tehsil record, the village houses 1,500 individuals, out of which 200 didn’t want to get vaccinated.
Despite re-iterations by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Ramnagar tehsil Rajiv Kumar Shukla, villagers fled as though they were being nabbed by the police officials. It is reported that he tried to educate the villagers about the importance and benefits of vaccination and tried to dispel the myths, despite which only 14 individuals got themselves inoculated.
Fearing the occurrence of an accident, officials persuaded the villagers to exempt them from the vaccine and brought them back to the shore.
A similar incident was reported earlier from the state, where the health care officials faced trouble in conducting screening and administering vaccinations.
This comes at a time when the country is witnessing an acute vaccine shortage especially for the age group of 18- 44 years and experts are pressing the need to get vaccinated to curtail the Covid spread. The steep surge in cases is overburdening the healthcare system especially in rural India.
Read About: Corona Update: India’s Daily Case Count Falls; records 3,511 deaths
Click on the link to join our WhatsApp group