Omicron scare, curbs over new variant peps up vaccination

Parents’ visits to PHCs for shots see a rise as schools make their vaccination mandatory for children to attend physical classes

The Omicron threat and the circulars from schools for mandatory vaccination of parents for facilitating their children attend physical classes has seen a sudden rise in vaccination in PHCs with people volunteering to get themselves inoculated with either first or second dose of vaccines.

There was a time when the PHCs were struggling to vaccinate at least 50 persons a day. In the last four days, the number in most PHCs in the city has crossed about 200 a day.

“If the fear of the new COVID-19 variant is one reason, another reason is about the fear of losing benefits, assuming that the government may bring in new rules making vaccination mandatory. The schools have started asking for vaccination certificates from parents. Such a rule may be expanded to other areas. In view of all these factors, the number of people seeking vaccination has seen a rise,” sources in the Health Department here said.