Mapping of Public Approach towards COVID-19 Vaccine for Preparedness and Resilience of Emerging Threats to Facilitate Cross-Country Systematic Roll-Out of Resources

Background: Vaccine hesitancy was one of the problems India faced after the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out. Earlier studies carried out to understand the perception of people towards the vaccine were mainly based on online or offline community-based surveys. These studies do not help to understand the actions taken by people towards vaccination. Hence, this study has been designed to understand the exact behaviour of people toward the vaccine. Methods: The study population is divided into three age groups, 18+ years, 12-14 years, and 15-18 years. The data analysis has been done using cumulative coverage of vaccines in the said age groups. Results: The study shows a substantial population has missed second and booster doses of vaccine at the state, regional, and national levels in all three three-age groups. Even for the states that have shown the smallest number of people who missed their dose, their number is in the thousands. Conclusion: Further research is needed to know, in total population, how many people have not even taken a single dose of vaccine. Policy-level efforts are needed to cover the entire population of the country for at least a single dose and vulnerable population, not only for the primary series (1st and 2nd dose) but also for the booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.