YADGIR: A village in Yadgir district with a population of 1,500 shut the door on the government’s vaccination drive by locking their houses or not opening the doors to vaccinators on Monday over unfouded fears about its after-effects.
It was high drama when villagers saw health officers arriving and setting up vaccination kiosks in the main area of Kanchagarahalli, about 10km from here, on Monday morning.
Some residents locked houses and took to their heels, while many others stayed inside the house and did not answer the doorbell.
A video showed a woman locking her house and running away from the officials, refusing to take the vaccine.
In another video, a woman was seen shouting at officials, claiming she “is fit and fine and there is no need to jab her or other family members”.
According to health officers who have set up the makeshift inoculation centre at a ration shop in Kanchagarahalli, villagers refused to take the jab over fears of inoculation after-effects.
The health officers called the fear “unfounded” and “part of misinformation campaign”.
After they learnt about vaccine hesitancy, Yadgir assistant commissioner Prashant Hanagandi, the tahsildar and district health officers rushed to the village and held a door-to door awareness campaign on vaccination and convinced them that there were no side-effects.
Hanagandi told TOI that they managed to vaccinate about 150 people with “strenuous efforts”.
“There is, of course, a long way to go.
Villagers are hesitant to participate in the programme.
Hence, we’ve asked the gram panchayat president to join hands with the district officials and create awareness and spike rumours about vaccines,” he added.
Sources said some residents refused to open the door and talk to health officers conducting the vaccination drive.
When the jab centre was set up in the village, no one showed interest.
Now, officials are carrying out vaccination at doorstep as villagers are not ready to visit the centre.