In a setback to Tamil Nadu's ongoing Covid-19 vaccination drive to beat the pandemic, the latest study has revealed the prevalence of vaccine hesitancy among people who are older than 60 years of age. The survey was conducted by the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine and has come at a high time when the state is taking preventive measures to tackle the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The survey was conducted across all districts of Tamil Nadu and each team was led by the Deputy Director of Health Services. As per the press release concerning the survey, the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine said that 95 clusters were picked randomly in the state and 30 houses were randomly chosen in each cluster to study how Covid-19 vaccination was caught up in these areas. The findings revealed that there is higher hesitancy among the older people in receiving the vaccine doses. 

As per the findings, vaccine hesitancy was highest at 27.6% among those aged 60 and above. While the hesitancy rate was at 18.2% among those who were aged between 45 and 60, it stood at 16.9% among those aged between 18-44 years. On the survey of the unvaccinated people, hesitancy to get vaccines was found in 19.7% and 18.4% of men and women respectively. About 80.3% of men and 81.6% of women were ready to receive the vaccine doses. 

The study had further revealed that the vaccine acceptance among the 18-44, 45-60, and over 60 age group was found to be 83.1%, 81.8%, and 72.4% respectively. On the front of the reasons behind the vaccine hesitancy, the study has shown the reason of the lack of information on where to get vaccinated ranked first at 59.9% and fear of complications after receiving the vaccine doses ranked second at 57.6%. Some of the other reasons include fear of death after vaccination, a phobia of injections, fear of contracting the virus after the vaccine, complacency, and unavailability of choice of the vaccine. 

The Department of Public Health had asserted that efforts would be initiated with the view of addressing the hesitancy over the Covid-19 vaccine among the population. The state government-body has said that people aged over 60 would also be given preference due to higher rates of reluctance and need. According to the data, a total of 2.06 crore people have received the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in Tamil Nadu while 46.42 lakh people have received the second dose. 

As per the bulletin from the state health department, Tamil Nadu has reported 1,956 Covid-19 cases, 1,807 discharges, and 28 deaths on Sunday. Overall, the state had recorded 25,75,308 Covid-19 cases so far as of Sunday of which 20,407 are active, 25,20,584 have been discharged, and 34,317 people had succumbed to the viral infection.