COVID-19 vaccination drive reaches Arunachal’s remote village on India-China border

Battling the second wave of COVID-19, Arunachal Pradesh is trying to vaccinate its citizens rapidly, reaching even the remotest border village ‘Mago’ on the Indo-China Border in the State’s Tawang district.

A two-day vaccination drive against Coronavirus was conducted for the villagers of Mago.

The Tawang district administration and health department inoculated around 200 residents of the border village, who are primarily yak herders. The team led by RD Thungon, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Jang Sub-division, walked for hours on foot, climbing ridges and harsh mountain terrains to immunise the villagers.

The vaccination drive was conducted not only to reach out to border villages, but to also reach out to their summer grazing ground, where the herders live for six months until the arrival of winter. The frontline workers had to move deep into the summer grazing ground, as the herders had already left for distant grazing grounds for their yaks.

Accordingly, one camp was held at Topgye Hotspring for the herders of China, Lungur, Chirgyap La including the villagers of Mago on June 25, and another immunisation drive was conducted at Jethang GG to cover the herders of Tso-Gye, Merathang GG, and Yaya  on the next day.

Meanwhile, rapid antigen test (RAT) were also carried out at Mago and Jethang GG, however, all samples tested negative.

A total of 177 individuals in the age group of 18 to 44 years have been vaccinated and 10 beneficiaries above 45 years were administered the first vaccine dose in the bordering villages.

On Monday, the union health ministry informed that India overtook the United States in the total number of vaccine doses administered so far.

As many as 32,36,63,297 doses have been administered in India since the beginning of the vaccination drive. India’s COVID-19 vaccination drive, the world’s largest vaccination drive so far, was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 16, 2021.