COVID-19 Vaccination: Man Climbs Tree, Another Wrestles Health Official To Escape The Jab [Video]

A team of health officials in India has been facing extreme reluctance from some people in a village regarding the COVID-19 vaccination.

A man reportedly climbed up a tree, while another person wrestled with a health official on the ground to escape getting jabbed. The incident took place in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where officials were carrying out a vaccination drive amid the growing number of coronavirus cases since the Omicron variant was found.

India is currently seeing the third wave of the pandemic, which comes ahead of elections in the country.

Videos taken by health officials shows one of the men climbing a tree, while another is seen wrestling a health official.

"Please come down," a group of people urged the man on a tree. "I won't come down. I don't want to get jabbed. I am scared," the man replied.

Finally, he relents and co-operates with the health officials.

In another video, a man is seen wrestling with health authorities as he tries to escape from getting the COVID-19 vaccine.

"I will come for vaccination later, not now," he says as he runs away. "Please take the shot now, why wait," a health official is heard saying in the background.

Talking to NDTV about the incident, a health official said: "The videos were shot by health officials during a vaccination drive. The man who climbed on the tree was initially hesitant. We convince them and got him jabbed. In the other case, the boatman was scared that we will forcefully take him and hence got aggressive."

Uttar Pradesh has administered 240 million doses under the countrywide vaccination drive that was rolled out on Jan. 16, 2021. Earlier this week, active COVID-19 cases crossed the 100,000 mark in the state once again after 240 days.

Meanwhile, the country recorded 317,532 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday, 12.2 percent higher than Tuesday's reported 282,000 daily cases. After the increase in the number of COVID cases this year since the Omicron variant was found, the government allowed frontline workers and anyone above the age of 60 with comorbidities to get a third booster dose.