Another achievement for the North-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh as Tupi village in its Tirap district becomes the first village in the state to vaccinate all its adult population against COVID-19.
On Wednesday, the remote New Tupi village under Longo administrative circle accomplished the feat after 100% of the villagers under the age of 45 and above were vaccinated with the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The village has about 80 households and is 15kms away from Khonsa, the headquarters of the Tirap district.
Speaking to sources, Longo circle officer Ripi Doni said, “Though the adult population of New Tupi village is only 69, it, however, took them more than two months to convince people to get themselves vaccinated.” He mentioned that the administrative and medical teams had been trying to convince the unwilling public to take the COVID-19 jab since April.
“When we tried to convince the locals to take the COVID-19 jab, they always came up with excuses, mostly based on fake news and rumours. There were also a few villagers who were certain that they would die if they took the vaccine, thanks to fake WhatsApp forwards and other false information being shared on social media,” Doni said. On the other hand, farming activities and daily chores appeared more important to the villagers than getting inoculated.
Due to a lack of public support and understanding, it has always been a struggle to get people vaccinated in such remote areas of Arunachal. However, the administrative officers could finally get everyone inoculated by adopting strategies like giving away free rice and door-to-door vaccine awareness programmes.
Inputs: EastMojo
