NewsClick

NewsClick
  • हिन्दी
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Covid-19
  • Science
  • Culture
  • India
  • International
  • Sports
  • Articles
  • Videos
search
menu

INTERACTIVE ELECTION MAPS

image/svg+xml
  • All Articles
  • Newsclick Articles
  • All Videos
  • Newsclick Videos
  • हिन्दी
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Science
  • Culture
  • India
  • Sports
  • International
  • Africa
  • Latin America
  • Palestine
  • Nepal
  • Pakistan
  • Sri Lanka
  • US
  • West Asia
About us
Subscribe
Follow us Facebook - Newsclick Twitter - Newsclick RSS - Newsclick
close menu
×
For latest updates on nCOVID-19 around the world visit our INTERACTIVE COVID MAP
Covid-19
Health
India

Maharashtra: Vaccination Takes Backseat During COVID-19 Lockdown

Over 1,60,000 babies get fully immunised every month but in the months of April and May the number was not more than 1,20,000. The pandemic has caused close to a 25% decrease in vaccination.
Varsha Torgalkar
30 Jul 2020
Maharashtra: Vaccination Takes Backseat During COVID-19 Lockdown

Rajamma Pawar is scared to take her seven-months old son, Vyankatesh, to hospital for vaccination.

Pune: Vaccination of babies between zero to twelve months of age has shown a decline of over 25% in Maharashtra due to several issues arising due to the COVID-19 pandemic. State officials said that government hospitals and its staff members were attending to COVID-19 patients, causing a disruption in services like vaccination.

Sangita Pathare (name changed), an Anganwadi Worker (AWW) who stays at the Shivajinagar slum, avoided the Dalvi Hospital, a facility where she takes her daughter for regular vaccination. The hospital, run by the Pune Municipal Corporation, is not dedicated to COVID-19. AWWs are supposed to alert newly mothers to take their babies for vaccination. However, Pathare could not muster enough courage to take her own baby to the hospital.

Babies should be given BCG, Hepatitis B and Oral Polio Vaccines (OPV) at birth and the Inactivated Polio Vaccine in the 14th week. All three vaccines – OPV, Pentavalent and Rotavirus – are to be given in the sixth, tenth and fourteenth week. Vaccines for measles and Vitamin A needs to be given after nine months, as per the Universal Immunisation Program.

The third OPV, given in the 14th week, was administered to over 1,11,000 babies in April and May; it is generally given to over 1,37,000 babies per month. Over 1,60,000 babies get fully immunised every month but in the months of April and May the number was not more than 1,20,000. The pandemic has caused close to a 25% decrease in vaccination.

          Vaccination Data

Vaccination drives reduced due to covid-19 lockdown

Information provided by State Family Welfare Bureau

From behind clothes hanging on a wire outside her tin home, Anusaya Shinde, a 22-year-old home-maker of the Vadar tribe, said that her husband had not taken her eight-month-old child to a health centre since March, due to COVID-19. With Chandrakala in her hands, Anusaya said: “We could not go back to our village in Umarga in Osmanabad district due to the lockdown. My husband would take our baby there for vaccinations.”

Anusaya lives in the Ektanagar slum at Pashan, Pune. Over four families of the Vadar tribe from her village stay in 10X10 ft rooms made of tin. Seven-month-old Venkatesh, the son of Rajamma Pawar, has not been vaccinated in the last four months.

Vaccination drives reduced due to covid-19 lockdown

Anusaya Shinde with her eight-month old baby.

Rajamma, whose husband breaks stones in quarries and earns about Rs 2,000 per week, said: “We might get infected if we visit the hospital. It is better not to give him vaccines now.”

A local official, who wished to remain anonymous, said that vaccination in tribal areas is done through an outreach program by a team of Rashtriya Bal Suraksha Karyakram (RBSK). RBSK does not have sufficient staff and could not reach tribal belts for vaccination as they do on a particular day, each month.

“It is hard to convince tribal people to visit hospitals in general. They would not agree to go now during the pandemic. We need to pay visits to each home to recover for the lost time for the better health of the kids in future,” he added.

The alarming decline in the number of children receiving life-saving vaccines might threaten reverse a hard-fought battle to reach more children and adolescents with a wider range of vaccines, according to a warning issued by UNICEF after it released data that said there was a decrease in vaccination across the world.

Dr. Dilip Patil, Deputy Director, Vaccines, State Family Welfare Bureau (SFWB), accepted that the vaccination percentage has been going down since the COVID-19 outbreak in the state. “People are scared to visit government hospitals. Many government hospitals have been converted into full-time COVID-19 facilities and staff at government healthcare facilities were given COVID-19 related tasks. It has resulted in a decrease in vaccination,” he said.

Patil added that percentage of vaccination could actually be higher since many health officials could not update the data due to various reasons. However, he admitted that the number is lower than their target.

“Special staff has been deployed temporarily for COVID-19. Our regular staff will resume routine vaccination work and the state is committed to recover,” he added.

The latest data on vaccine coverage estimates from WHO and UNICEF for 2019 shows that improvements, such as the expansion of the HPV vaccine to 106 countries, and greater protection for children against more diseases are in danger of lapsing. This is the first time in 28 years that the world could see a reduction in DTP3 coverage – the marker for immunisation coverage within and across countries.

Get the latest reports & analysis with people's perspective on Protests, movements & deep analytical videos, discussions of the current affairs in your Telegram app. Subscribe to NewsClick's Telegram channel & get Real-Time updates on stories, as they get published on our website.
Vaccination
Pune
Maharashtra
COVID-19
Coronavirus vaccine
vaccination drop covid
Related Stories
Ramdev Coronil

Another First: Health Minister Pushes Unproven Covid Drug

covid sample.

Madhya Pradesh: COVID-19 Samples from Indore Sent for Genome Sequencing

fISHERMAN MAHA.

Maharashtra: Lockdown Scare Hurting Fishermen More Than Corona’s Return

COVID-19: India Records 10,584 New Cases

COVID-19: India Records 10,584 New Cases

COVID-19 surge

Maharashtra: Spike in Covid Cases Causes Worry, Restrictions in Pune

TN this Week: Election Campaigns in Full-Swing, Brutal Police Attack on Protestors, Four Manual Scavenging Deaths

TN this Week: Election Campaigns in Full-Swing, Brutal Police Attack on Protestors, Four Manual Scavenging Deaths

Spike in Daily New COVID Cases in Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, MP: Govt

Spike in Daily New COVID Cases in Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, MP: Govt

COVID-19 vaccine

COVID-19 Vaccines: How Soon Will Life Become Normal?

J&K

Life After Art. 370: How J&K Government Insults Covid Warriors

education budget.

Education Budget 2021-22 is Out of Sync with NEP

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on WhatsAppShare via EmailShare on RedditShare on KindlePrint
Share
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on WhatsAppShare via EmailShare on RedditShare on KindlePrint
Share

Related Stories

Newsclick Production

Minorities and the Poor are the Worst Affected by COVID-19 in the US

26 February 2021
On February 22, the US recorded 500,000 COVID-19 related deaths.
PTI

COVID-19: India Records over 16,000 Fresh Infections for Second Consecutive Day

26 February 2021
New Delhi, Feb 26: India recorded its second consecutive single-day increase of over 16,000 COVID-19 cases as the infection tally rose to 1,10,63,4
Abir Dasgupta

Delhi Police FIR: GeneStore India Supplied Low-quality COVID-19 Tests, Directors Accused of Fraud

26 February 2021
An FIR filed by the Delhi Police and proceedings in a case at the Delhi High Court alleges that GeneStore India, a biotechnology company, supplied

Pagination

  • Next page ››

More

  • Bharan bandh andhra

    Bharat Bandh: Traders, Merchants Shut Shops, Transport Workers Off Roads in Telangana and Andhra

  • CPI Leader.

    Veteran CPI Leader D Pandian Passes Away in Chennai

  • ENV

    CSE’s State of Environment Report: Inching Closer to Ecological Disasters

  • covid 19.

    COVID-19: India Records over 16,000 Fresh Infections for Second Consecutive Day

  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with
about