‘Even if the Vaccine Supply is Taken Care of, Staff is Limited’

Q: Are you involved in the COVID-19 vaccination process? What is your role?

Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM): Yes. I am a senior ANM among the staff here, hence, administering vaccines is my main responsibility. Apart from this, we also go door-to-door to conduct surveys and provide medicine kits to COVID-19 positive patients.

Q: What kind of challenges are you facing in vaccinating the 18-44 years of age group?

ANM: Vaccination of people between 18-44 years of age is not taking place right now. The vaccine stock had been delivered once, but people from outside came here and got vaccinated. No one from our area could get the vaccine as they were unable to register online. The fact that people were arriving from outside for vaccinations was strongly opposed by the locals. However, since then, we have not received vaccine stocks for the 18-44 years population.

I think the vaccination process is going to take a lot of time. Till the time we receive vaccine stocks for the 18-44 years age group, it will be time to give the second dose to the over 45 years of age population. This might lead to overcrowding at the centre.

Even if the vaccine supply is sufficient, the staff and other resources at the centre are limited.

Q: Have you received any training on COVID-19 in the last four months?

ANM: Yes, we have had at least three training sessions on the proning position since January.

Q: Are other activities like routine immunisation and family planning counselling taking place?

ANM: Routine immunisation is properly ongoing at a lot of places, but we are not able to do it in our area because it is a containment zone. When the immunisations were scheduled previously, people did not bring their children to the centre. Pregnant women still turned up, but not even one child came for immunisation.

Family planning counselling is not taking place right now. However, people do come to collect contraceptives.

This interview was conducted with an Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan in Hindi on 26 May 2021, and has been translated.

Source: Newslaundry