Andhra Pradesh gears up to foil misuse of COVID vaccine drive

Vijayawada: As the state government gets ready to administer anti-Covid-19 jab to nearly 40 lakh mothers having children below five years, there is a chance of misuse of jab unless the identity of the child is taken up for registration in CoWIN app as others may claim the child to be theirs and get the jab.

As the third wave of the Coronavirus pandemic is expected to affect the children, the state government has taken a decision to inoculate the mothers in the first instance, so that when they attend to their infected child during hospitalisation they will remain safe from the infection. Accordingly, the director of health issued a circular instructing all medical officers to prepare a list of mothers with kids below five years to administer the jab to them and entrusted the task to ANMs and ASHA workers to mobilise the mothers to Covid Vaccination Centres for the jab.

However, with people giving up hesitation to take the jab and rushing for vaccines, it has led to abuse of the exercise as those who do not fall in eligibility criteria managed to get the jab, forcing the state government to issue coupon system to arrest it. In the case of young mothers, officials have been asked to follow the list of eligible moms and record their Aadhaar numbers, including temporary IDs issued for the children, on the CoWIN app. This is hoped to avert any misuse of the facility by others not falling in the eligible category. Though in rural areas, the health staff may be able to identify true beneficiaries, heavy rush may not make it possible for them to keep close tabs and avert misuse.

Director of Health Dr T. Geeta Prasadini said, “As the list of all eligible mothers with kids below five years is getting ready for the jab, we will strictly go by it at CVCs and avoid any chance of misuse of jab by any means and take corrective measures in case of any issues as vaccination programme goes on.”