Rajannapet village in Rajanna-Sircilla district has become the first ‘COVID-resilient’ village in the country, thanks to efforts of locals and healthcare workers (HCW), claimed members of Project Madad, adding that they have implemented five public health measures to achieve the status. Universal immunisation against COVID-19 was one of the measures.
Project Madad is a voluntary group of doctors and professionals from India and the Indian diaspora who are working towards fighting the pandemic in their personal capacities.
The five measures include active countering of COVID misinformation in vernacular language; empowerment and equipping of rural HCWs; innovative methods to encourage socially responsible behaviour and increase vaccine acceptance; targeted delivery of vaccines to achieve universal coverage; use of technology to address specific dimensions of the COVID challenge.
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A four-day campaign, which ended on July 31, was conducted to vaccinate 1,328 out of the 1,700 adults in the village eligible for the COVID jab, following 10 weeks of public health innovations. The rest opted for vaccination elsewhere. The beneficiaries are yet to receive the second dose. Some were not vaccinated owing to health complications while a few others had recently recovered from the infectious disease.
This was announced at a virtual press meet on Monday.
Project Madad lead Raja Karthikeya said it is a model which forged government-private sector-civil society collaboration in public health, and is being replicated in other villages of India. The group involved elected representatives, religious leaders, youth organisations and businessmen, who decided how to implement the COVID measures, and disseminated the information. Government HCWs were also involved.
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Rajannapet sarpanch M. Shankar said 10 groups consisting of Accredited Social Health Activists, Anganwadi workers and others were formed and they went door to door to track co-morbidities among residents and number of members in a family to be vaccinated.
Mr Shankar said that concerns and misinformation among people were addressed.