By Adnan Abidi

MALANA, India (Reuters) – To visit the Indian village of Malana deep in the Himalayas, a COVID-19 vaccination team scrambled over a landslide that blocked the road the day before, scaled a retaining wall and then began a three-hour trek down and up a river valley.

The hostile terrain meant that the Malana-area northern state, Himachal Pradesh was the first Indian to give at least one COVID-19 vaccination dose earlier this month.

As the tourist-dependent state immunized its approximately 5 million adult population, health staff had to conquer steep topography.

The Malana vaccine clinic was visited by a five-member team, headed by Dr Atul Gopta (district health officer).

The landslide prevented them from leaving their vehicle. They carried two of the blue vaccine boxes over their shoulders and were able to climb the wall, maneuver through the rubble and walk to the trailhead that leads to Malana.

Gupta, his team and others placed the blue vaccine boxes on a gondola with pulleys before they began the trek to Malana. As they began to traverse the gorge, it was a much easier walk. It drops about 100m (335 feet)

Gupta told the group that in order to persuade Malana’s 1,100 people to receive their first shots this August, the district chief summoned priests to invoke a Hindu god. According to him, this enabled health workers to treat 700 patients in just three days.

Nearly three dozen village residents, having received their first shot before Gupta arrived, lined up for their second shot just next to an old temple dedicated to the god.

Rajuram (the village head) said that initially people were afraid to get the vaccine. He was worried about their chances of getting sick. Then, I did it. Others also took the risk.

Jai Ram Thakur (Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh) attributes India’s successes in vaccinations to its village to-village drive, the decision by local officials to get involved, and federal government policy to give priority to immunisation in tourist hotspots.

India plans to have nearly all its adult population vaccinated before December. The country has administered at most one dose to approximately two-thirds and two doses within a quarter of a year. Thakur would like Himachal Pradesh be the first state to achieve the two dose milestone. This is likely to happen by November.

(Additional reporting and writing by Krishna N. Das; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)