The program, launched in January, has deployed nearly 100 mobile vaccination vans, which travel from village to village to increase vaccination coverage
The USAID-supported “Vaccine on Wheels” program has announced that it has successfully administered one million doses (10 lakhs) of the COVID-19 vaccine in remote areas of Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, and Meghalaya. The program, launched in January, has deployed nearly 100 mobile vaccination vans, which travel from village to village to increase vaccination coverage. The vans have reached more than 2,800 villages to date across 30 priority districts. Notably, of the one million doses administered through this program, just under 25 per cent went to the elderly or patients with comorbidities, and nearly half went to women.
The program uses innovative models to reach the unvaccinated, including door-to-door campaigning; customised messaging, taking into account local cultures and dialects; and engagement with local influencers to spread awareness and address hesitancies. The mobile nature of the program allows it to reach people at the right place and the right time, stopping at agricultural fields and construction sites, and organizing in the early morning or late night to adjust to schedules of daily wage earners who might not otherwise make it to a clinic. Doctors and nurses accompany the vans to administer vaccines to beneficiaries closer to their doorstep, and counsel them on the benefits of vaccination and address hesitation. Importantly, the mobile vans also advance information about routine immunisations and primary health check-ups.
Veena Reddy, USAID/India Mission Director said, “USAID is encouraged that the Vaccine on Wheels program has reached more than one million people living in hard-to-reach areas, where basic health and social services are already slim. This milestone contributes to USAID’s ongoing COVID-19 work in India, which has now reached more than 100 million people since the onset of the pandemic, through interventions like the Vaccine on Wheels program, support to health systems and training, medicines and equipment, and community outreach. As we mark World Immunization Week, we also recognise the need to strengthen routine immunizations for a healthy population.”
Abhishek Gopalka, Managing Director & Partner, BCG, who leads the firm’s work in Public Health in India added that “Private sector can play a valuable role in augmenting government’s efforts for pandemic response and broader health system strengthening. BCG has been privileged to support multi-stakeholder partnerships to expedite vaccination in the most hard-to-reach districts of the country.”
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