Villagers Jump Into River to Escape COVID-19 Vaccination in UP's Barabanki

Villagers in Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki leaped into the Sarayu river to avoid vaccination as a team of health officials arrived to inoculate them in a bizarre incidence of vaccine reluctance.

According to Rajiv Kumar Shukla, Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Ramnagar Tehsil, the incident occurred on Saturday.

Only 14 persons were vaccinated, despite the Sub-Divisional Magistrate explaining the need and benefits of vaccination and attempting to debunk myths.

The villagers claimed they leaped into the river because they were told it was a poisonous injection rather than a vaccine.

This comes at a time when the country is facing a significant vaccination shortage, particularly among those aged 11 to 44. 

Although in the recent days where India has witnessed a downward graph of daily infections of the novel coronavirus, the daily COVID-19 induced fatalities have been on an upward spiral, increasing with every passing day. 

The daily cases of coronavirus infections have crumpled the already overburdened healthcare infrastructure in the country to the verge of collapse, and to make matters worse, the deadly infectious virus is now infecting scores of people belonging to rural India. 

All health care experts have been repeatedly stressing on the point that vaccination is the one the most key defence against the deadline coronavirus infection. 

Other nations including the US, Britain and Russia have been providing aid to India as it fights against the insidious grasp of the coronavirus pandemic, making it the second worst COVID-19 affected country in the world. 

Since vaccination is considered to be the primary solution to the viral infection, top medical bodies continue to conduct extensive and comprehensive research on how to improvise and make the doses more potent. Latest developments are promptly being presented before the general public to bring awareness. 

 Meanwhile, according to data updated on Monday by the Union Health Ministry, the number of infections in India fell to 2,22,315, the lowest in nearly 38 days, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases to 2,67,52,447 and the number of deaths to over 3 lakh. The death toll rose to 3,03,720, with 4,454 daily deaths , according to data updated at 8 AM.

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