COVID-19: Surla first village in Goa to be fully vaccinated

Panaji, Jun 28: Surla in Goa's Sattari taluka became the state's first village to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, a health official said on Monday.

Valpoi Community Health Centre in charge Dr Shyam Kankonkar said his team visited every home in the village, located on the top of a hill, and got its members to attend a vaccination camp on Sunday.

The village, some 50 kilometres away from Valpoi and 76 kilometres from Panaji, has no internet connection, which was a hurdle in registering the residents for inoculation on the Centre's CoWin platform, he said.

"The vaccination registration was done offline. On Sunday, we vaccinated 218 residents of Surla and made it a vaccination complete village," he added.

Local panchayat member Suryakant Gawas said the village has 400 residents, of which some 300 were eligible to be vaccinated.

"Many were vaccinated during the state government's ''Tika Utsav'' in April this year. We are thankful to the state government and health minister Vishwajit Rane for the efforts taken to make our village fully vaccinated," Gawas added.