Chennai: In the outskirts of the city alongside the picturesque beaches in Kovalam, people in the region have much more takeaways from the vaccine centre other than the feeling of having excessive antigens to combat Coronavirus, well they can take home free gifts like — gold coin, refrigerator, two-wheeler and etc — after getting a jab. The youth of the region came out with a motive to make the first area in city limits to get 100 per cent vaccinated. So that the population of 6,000 can get vaccinated and be safe in the hinterland.
It was reported that there was a huge scare among people to get inoculated and they wouldn’t make a move to take a jab. The STS Foundation, managed by the youth of Kovalam teamed up with CN Ramdas Champions Development Trust and the Don Bosco Alumni Group to create awareness among people and get them vaccinated. They have pooled in Rs 50 lakh for this campaign and they set sights to inoculate 50,000 people in the outskirts of the city.
The scheme was launched on Saturday and since then people started showing interest in getting vaccinated. The volunteers claim that before the campaign was launched, only 50 odd people got vaccinated, and now per day more than 100 people take jabs.
Before stepping out with a scheme, they have planned to educate people about the importance of vaccines. The volunteers have roped in a TV actor to make videos and bring awareness. They have sent the videos to people’s WhatsApp and that could grab the eye-balls of the local people towards free vaccination in the region.
Earlier, PMK founder Dr Ramadoss said that the state government should make vaccination mandatory by co-relating welfare schemes to it. He said government should roll out welfare schemes only to those who get vaccinated and bring awareness among people as to how significant vaccine is.