74% of Sikkim’s population fully Vaccinated: Sikkim becomes the highest vaccinated state in India

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India On September 28 declared list of states  ranking the states on its fully vaccination. In which with Sikkim leads the list with 74% of population fully vaccinated followed by Goa with 57%  Mizoram with 49% Himachal Pradesh with 47% and Tripura with 44%. Despite being a small state, Sikkim has fully  vaccinated 74% of its population,

Speaking to Sikkim chronicle, Dr Phumzay Denzongpa,  State immunization Officer informed, “There  was time when Sikkim was facing problem regarding shortage of vaccine doses sent by the central, but now  Sikkim tops the country on most vaccination”

“The vaccine supply has improved and the acceptance of vaccine  at the community level has improved   as people were eagerly waiting for the vaccine to be  supplied to the state. In initial days the supply of vaccine was not sufficient  because of that we couldn’t be able to reach the mass in  a full-fledged way” She informed 

“Adversely, following the covid vaccination coverage  was  very minimal however  we started organizing  awareness program, health programs around the state and made aware the mass of the importance of vaccine, and we saw gradual growth” She added 

Furthermore, she informed that the state has long way to go, in which she added, “We still have a long way to go, people who are affected by the Covid cannot take vaccine for three months and because of which we are not being able to close the gap, as the ministry of health and family welfare has given us a target to vaccinate above age of 18-40 in which 100% of population has been jabbed with the first dose likewise, 74% completed, and they again had consultation with the registrar general of India and election  commission we worked with the centre and revisited the target of 5,17000(five lakh seventeen  thousand)that is the target given by government of India.” She added 

“The Health workers has been working restlessly towards vaccination even during Sundays and government holidays too. The people who are disabled and cannot visit the vaccination centres for them, we took an initiative to vaccinate them at their home.”

By Sheetal Kharka. The author is a freelance writer. She can be contacted at [email protected]