NATHEALTH & Centre for Knowledge & Development launch campaign “Win with Vaccines” to bolster COVID-19 vaccinations

New Delhi: Healthcare Federation of India-NATHEALTH and Centre for Knowledge & Development, (CKD) an organization incubated by IPE Global, has launched a public education campaign, “Win with Vaccines” to build COVID-19 vaccine confidence in five low coverage districts across Assam and Haryana.

This is significant in view of the fact that the Government of India has initiated Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav to celebrate and commemorate 75 years of independence and the glorious history of India, its people, culture and achievements. These districts include South Salmara Mankachar, Baksa, Chirang and Udalguri in Assam and Nuh in Haryana, having the lowest rate of vaccination in the states. While India has reached a significant milestone by administering a total of 200 million vaccines, only 9.79 crore citizens have been administered the booster dose till 4th August 2022.

Overall, vaccination numbers have dropped in certain pockets of the country, a gap that NATHEALTH in collaboration with Centre for knowledge and Development, Wipro GE Healthcare, Charnock Hospital and Fresenius Medical Care aim to address with this campaign.

The objective of the campaign is to engage with key stakeholders, join hands with district authorities, and run a comprehensive public education program that addresses awareness gaps in understanding the benefits of vaccination. The programme will use effective monitoring and impact assessment tools to measure progress and a multi-pronged communication approach will be adopted, blending traditional and new age mediums. It will leverage local talent groups, theatre artists, influencers, youth icons, community and women leaders for maximizing the campaign outreach. On-ground interventions will include dissemination of IEC/BCC material and tool kits during regional festivals, across bus stops, Health and wellness centers, schools, community gatherings and local haats to maximize the outreach and recall.

Speaking on the initiative, Dr. Shravan Subramanyam, President, NATHEALTH and Managing Director, Wipro GE Healthcare, said, “We are happy to join hands with Centre for Knowledge and Development for this initiative to enable a wider adoption of vaccines. India is seeing a dip in vaccinations and citizen education and awareness will be fundamental to accelerate adoption. Understanding the need for vaccination and breaking free from the misconceptions will be key to enable behavior change and drive confidence in vaccines in low coverage areas”.

Seema Gupta, Advisor, Centre for Knowledge and Development (CKD), said, “The joint campaign will address issues of diffidence in vaccination by debunking myths and misconceptions, engage government and private stakeholders for increasing coverage of COVID-19 vaccines. The task of immunizing the entire population must be completed at the earliest to eliminate or minimize the risk of a new variant of the virus catching the population on the wrong foot. As part of the exercise, CKD-NATHEALTH campaign will also focus on the Left out, drop out and resistant (LODOR) populations across all age groups to raise awareness, build confidence to complete the COVID 19 vaccination protocols. “

Sanjay Bhardwaj, Associate Partner – Government Services, Mazars Advisory LLP “We are delighted to partner with NATHEALTH and Centre for Knowledge & Development, on the public education campaign. The country’s vaccination mission is a shining example of strategic and swift planning to address the impact of a pandemic. An alliance between the government and private entities has until now increased the coverage of COVID-19 vaccinations. However, there is a need to assess the challenges of the immunization program that aims to cover the entire nation. Hence, it is a must to audit the underserved and under-covered regions and populations in the country and understand the hurdles.”

The pace of COVID vaccinations in the identified district remains slow. Nuh in Haryana has the lowest vaccination rate in Haryana. As on 4^th August 2022, only 5309 people in Nuh have been administered booster dose. With rising COVID cases, the situation in Assam is quite similar with abysmally low uptake of booster doses and also resistance from tribal and ethnic groups, specially in hard-to-reach areas.