Poor response to COVID-19 vaccine programme in Puducherry: Officials

The response to the ongoingCOVID-19 vaccine programme in the union territory was not upto the mark, top officials said on Thursday, stressing thatall frontline and field workers should get vaccinated to fightthe pandemic.

Speaking to reporters after getting himself vaccinated forthe coronavirus, Chief Secretary Ashwani Kumar S said he tookthe jab to motivate the other officials and the employees.

''The state-level committee for review of progress ofvaccination programme (launched here on January 16) has foundthat the response to the programme in Union Territory ofPuducherry is not up to the mark,'' he told reporters here.

Besides him, Information and Publicity Secretary S DSundaresan was also administered the vaccine, becomingthe first top officials to get the jab.

According to health officials, so far only 4,770 of thefrontline workers, including 4,587 in healthcare, had beenvaccinated in Puducherry.

The total healthcare workers in union territory was around25,000 and frontline workers would be 7,000, Health SecretaryT Arun said.

Kumar, who was administered the vaccination at thegovernment general hospital, said his experience was smooth.

''Vaccination is one of the ways to fight the pandemic.

We should fight together to keep pandemic at bay,'' he said.

The top official appealed to the front line workers tocome forward and get the vaccination.

Noting that Puducherry had achieved cent percent coveragein the general immunisation programme, he said vaccinationagainst COVID-19 was also an immunisation programme and allshould come forward to fight the pandemic through vaccination.

Arun said awareness about vaccination was ''the lowest inthe Union Territory''.

Awareness was not adequately generated and to motivatethe frontline workers, the Chief Secretary and the Informationand Publicity Secretary got themselves vaccinated, keepingwith the dictum of leading by example, he added.