Recovery of Childhood Immunization Disrupted by Covid-19 Pandemic - Core Group Partners Project's Learnings from Four Districts of Uttar Pradesh, India

BackgroundThe CORE Group Partners Project (CGPP), a consortium of private voluntary organizations, implements social mobilization activities to mobilize communities for childhood vaccination among vulnerable groups in 12 districts of Uttar Pradesh, India. CRS (Catholic Relief Services), one of the consortium partners of CGPP, works in four districts of Uttar Pradesh, covering a total population of 356,501 and 58,630 families having 41,590 children under the age of five years. During the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, 1.5 million children in the state of Uttar Pradesh missed their doses. In the CGPP work areas, a total of 3,302 families were hesitant to vaccinate their children due to the risk of acquiring COVID disease at the immunization session sites. CGPP applied the following strategies that helped in mobilizing families to catch up with the unvaccinated children. Engaging community influencers to interact with the close associates of unvaccinated families and convey the importance of childhood vaccination with facts and figures.Building capacities of government frontline health workers on knowledge and skills in conducting effective one-to-one and group meetings and use of IEC material, including indigenous toolIdentifying government frontline health workers (ASHAs) with training/capacity-building needs through a grading tool Result - A tailored communication package using simple language and key facts on the importance of childhood vaccination helped break barriers and increased vaccination coverage by 54% in FY 2020-21 to 64% of eligible children fully immunized in 2022. Conclusion: Engaging close associates of target households through informal meetings at popular places in community settings and Building capacities of frontline health workers was found to be an effective strategy to neutralize resistance to childhood vaccination.