The third wave of Covid 19 may or may not be round the corner. There are fears in some quarters that it has already arrived. Be that as it may, the best way to tackle the situation is to be prepared and go far maximum vaccination.
Keeping this mantra in mind, The District Collector of Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh, Mr Pulkit Khare is ahead on both fronts. While giving a boost to medical preparedness, in case the third wave come crashing, he has already got 50 percent of the district population vaccinated. This is no small achievement. Pilibhit has reached the 8th position in Uttar Pradesh when it comes to maximum vaccination and is the only rural district to be standing with urban districts like Lucknow and Meerut.
In a conversation with Indian Masterminds, Mr Khare who is a 2010-batch officer talked about his strategies for the ongoing vaccination campaign and the groundwork being done to keep children safe.
Vaccinating the Parents of School-going Children
Pilibhit administration has organized several vaccination camps targeting specific groups like bank employees, teachers, rickshaw-pullers etc. Now, it is focusing on vaccinating the parents of school-going children so that schools may be opened soon. Speaking about these developments, Said Mr Khare,“We have made several sub-groups of the people who fall in 18+ or 45+ categories. There have been several camps and vaccination centers, especially for women and girls. Besides that, we are also organizing vaccination camps in schools for the parents. The administration had a meeting with the private schools in the district after which a letter was sent to the parents with an appeal to come and get the vaccination. We told them that schools can only be opened if they and eventually their children are safe. I am glad that this worked and we saw a significant rise in the rate of vaccination”.
Roping in Religious Leaders
While the rate of vaccination in the town areas of the district was satisfactory, there were a few villages in Pilibhit with only 4-5% vaccination rates. This was a shocking indeed, but the reasons were not that difficult to unearth. “After this vaccination program started, we created a data feeding platform with the help of Google sheets. This allowed us to keep a track on how many people in every region have been vaccinated in a day. During a review of this data we found out that while some villages have achieved 60-65% vaccination rates, there are many still lagging behind at only 4-5%. With a little research we found that community related misconceptions have spread across these villages and was the reason behind this poor data”, said Mr. Khare.
To tackle this problem, the administration roped in religious leaders like priests and mawlawis. Various meetings were organized to clarify their doubts so that they can go to the villages and spread awareness among the people. “At some point people might not listen to government officials but they do trust the priests and maulawis. Following the talk with the villagers, we saw improvement in numbers within just three days. The whole campaign is an ongoing process and we are trying hard to reach 100% vaccination,’’ added the collector.
Ready for the Third wave
Our country witnessed one of the biggest crises of oxygen supply during the second wave of Covid-19. To avoid this, the district administration of Pilibhit has arranged adequate numbers of oxygen cylinders and concentrators needed in case of a third wave. “Some of the cylinders have been donated by NGOs and individuals while others have been purchased by us. Right now, we have enough of these to tackle the needs of our district. Oxygen plant for the two CHCs and the district hospital is under construction and we are hoping to get it done within weeks”, said Mr. Khare.
He is also working towards strengthening the medical facilities required for children in case they get hit by the virus. The number of pediatric ICUs has been doubled. Now, the district has 25 such ICUs as well as a team of pediatricians. “The doctors and scientist are speculating that the third wave might be bad for children. So, we are focusing on that. We have roped in 13 doctors who are already giving tele-consultations for two hours every day. They are clearing the doubts of parents on what to do and not do as precautionary measures for preventing coronavirus infection. They are also helping the parents to understand the psychological impact their children are having due to the lockdown”, Mr Khare said.
It’s natural for parents to be worried about their children in such a frightening scenario. Mr. Khare understands this and is doing his best to remain one step ahead of the killer virus.
