A citizens' collective has said that all eligible residents of a village in Telangana have been administered the first dose of coronavirus vaccine making the hamlet "Covid-resilient".
Project Madad, a collective of doctors and volunteers from India and the Indian diaspora working together to provide COVID-19 education and healthcare assistance to rural India, said it has developed a model to make India's villages Covid-resilient.
In coordination with the government, Project Madad has achieved a Covid-resilient village -- Rajannapet in Sircilla district of Telangana -- it said.
"On July 31, Rajannapet achieved Covid-resilience status with first dose vaccination of 1,328 eligible adults," it said.
The group has used a five-pronged model to progressively bring about a behavioural change among the villagers who, according to the organisation, will not just be vaccinated, but also be better prepared in time to tackle any possible future wave.
The model consists of five elements -- empowerment and equipping of rural healthcare workers, active countering of Covid misinformation in the vernacular language, innovative methods to encourage socially responsible behaviour and increase vaccine acceptance, use of technology to address specific dimensions, and targeted delivery of vaccines to achieve universal coverage.
While there are several villages in Tripura, Goa, Maharashtra, and Jammu and Kashmir that have successfully vaccinated all its eligible residents with both doses of vaccine, Project Madad claimed that Rajannapet was India's first "Covid-resilient" village and that their model was one of its kind.
According to the Project Madad, achieving a state of Covid resilience involves a lot more than just vaccinating the population.
"The five-pronged 'Rajannapet model towards Covid resilience in villages' is not just about overcoming vaccine hesitancy. It is about achieving a social and behavioral transformation that makes the village impervious to seasonal outbreaks, reduces these outbreaks to a few isolated cases and does not let the virus acquire pandemic proportions.
"Even if complete and immediate vaccination of every eligible adult in India were somehow possible, vaccination alone is not enough to counter the COVID-19 menace and its impact. It needs to be part of a composite strategy," the group said.
3 People Die After Drowning In Lake In Telangana: Cops Bus Conductor Misbehaves With Woman Passenger In Telangana, Taken Into Police Custody 12-Year-Old Girl Among 3 Drown At Quarry Pit In Telangana: Cops Why BJP Lost Lok Sabha Polls In Uttar Pradesh - 6 Reasons In Party Report Travel Influencer Aanvi Kamdar Dies After Falling Off A Waterfall Near Mumbai "Meat, Potatoes" Guy Who Cooks Indian Food: JD Vance's Wife Describes Him More Than 40% Of Japanese Companies Have No Plan To Use AI: Reuters Poll "Unjustified": Russia On India Facing "Enormous Pressure" Due To Energy Ties Man Receives Worm-Infested Amul Buttermilk, Company Apologises Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.