Tamil Nadu survey shows vaccine hesitancy higher among those aged over 60

The survey was conducted by the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine.
Man getting vaccinated by health worker
Man getting vaccinated by health worker

A survey on COVID-19 carried out in Tamil Nadu has revealed that vaccine hesitancy is highest among senior citizens in the state. Among those aged 60 and above, vaccine hesitancy was highest at 27.6% of the population, while it was 16.9% of those aged between 18-44 years and 18.2% of those aged between 45-60 years were hesitant about the vaccination programme. Among the reasons for vaccine hesitancy, lack of information on where to get vaccinated ranked first at 59.9%, and fear of complications after taking the vaccine ranked second at 57.6%. Other reasons included fear of injections, fear of death after vaccination, complacency, fear of getting the disease after vaccine, long queues at vaccine centres, unavailability of choice of vaccine etc.

The survey was conducted by the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. The survey was conducted across all districts of Tamil Nadu and each team was led by the Deputy Director of Health Services. Explaining the survey, a press release by the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine said that 95 clusters were chosen at random in the state with each cluster consisting of 30 random houses.

Among unvaccinated people, reluctance to get vaccines was found in 19.7% and 18.4% of men and women. About 80.3% men and 81.6% of women were ready to get vaccinated. 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.

The Department of Public Health further added that efforts would be taken to address misconceptions regarding the COVID-19 vaccine prevalent among the population. People aged over 60 would also be given preference due to higher rates of reluctance and need, the report said.  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.

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