Tirupati: Without taking jabs, people get 'successful vaccination' msgs

Tirupati: The reluctance of people in taking the precautionary dose of Covid vaccine seems to have forced the staff concerned to record in the CoWin portal that the jabs are given.

This trend is not confined to one city but in several parts of the State, people have been getting messages which say, "You have successfully been vaccinated with your Precaution Dose," which also mentions the name of the person, date and time of vaccination. The people who receive such messages were getting embarrassed and starting asking their friends and neighbours whether they too get such messages. A woman who got such a message asked how she could get such a message without going for the precautionary dose? "I got phone calls four times during the last three months to come for vaccination. Suddenly I got the message that I was vaccinated with my precautionary dose which is ridiculous," she commented.

Another man said that his wife also got reminders from the staff concerned. Though she did not go for it, recently, she got an SMS that the jab was given and could download the certificate as well. He felt that the staff have been enrolling the names of eligible vaccine beneficiaries in the CoWin portal to fulfil their targets.

This raises a serious question about how they can get their precautionary dose when they actually want it as the portal indicates that they were already vaccinated. However, the officials concerned were maintaining that they were not aware of such messages and are refusing to comment further.

Meanwhile, the gradual increase of Covid cases warns that there is a need for taking up immediate preventive measures in Tirupati and surrounding areas. A few doctors in Ruia Hospital were infected and taking treatment. During the past one week or so, on an average 10 cases were being reported on each day. Yet, the district officials have not cautioned people on the preventive steps.

Being a pilgrim centre and having borders with both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka where the cases are increasing, if proper steps are not taken in the early stages itself, the cases may increase exponentially in the next few days. The district machinery has not been releasing the case details on a daily basis.

There was no information about the availability of Covid beds in different hospitals, the modalities for conducting RT-PCR tests etc., Even the State government has stopped issuing the daily bulletins during the last two months.