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In an Indian-administered Kashmir village, health worker Masrat Farid vaccinates his bag on a cold morning while the strong wind blows snow in the air.
It is part of a group of door-to-door health workers in the region, as part of a new phase of integrating 15- to 18-year-olds and providing boosters to people over the age of 60 with health problems. vaccine started this month.
“We have to fight the infection. We have to keep going, ”Farid said in Gagangir, a village in the Himalayan forests, as he passed snow to his knees.
Farid and his colleagues have vaccinated thousands over the past year, mostly in villages that hike long distances in rugged countryside.
But the cold, snow-covered lands that are bone-chilling are not their only obstacles.
Some residents are still hesitant about vaccinations and gaining their trust is more difficult than coping with the Himalayan winter.
“Most young girls are hesitant, driven by misinformation and mistrust,” Farid said. The vaccine was based on the false belief that it causes or even prevents pregnancy.
“We need to not only inoculate them against coronavirus, we also need to educate them about vaccines to gain their trust,” he said.
Proponents of what it calls “precautionary” shots are being targeted at high-risk groups by Indian health officials, who were among the first to receive vaccines last year, and their immunity is declining.
Health chief Jaffar Ali said the main challenge this year was severe weather – unlike last year, when some of his colleagues were harassed by locals during the campaign, as many residents believed the shootings had caused impotence, serious side effects or. it could even kill him.
To date, health workers have fully integrated more than 72 percent of the region’s eligible population of 14 million, according to official data.
Health officials recently moved to some villages, including Khag, a forest village where residents are mostly tribal and live in houses made of mud, stone or wood, due to heavy snowfall and vaccinated residents.
Arsha Begum, a blind elderly woman, expressed her gratitude to a group of doctors who visited her home and gave her a booster inside her home.
“In this harsh weather it would not be possible to go to a hospital. I really appreciate that, ”he said.
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