Nazir Khan, 52, sits quietly in a corner on the first floor of a government-run health centre in the Batamaloo locality of Srinagar. In another corner, dozens of people excitedly queue up next to a vaccination room that exclaims ‘Covid-19 vaccine is Safe’.

Khan looks nervous as a female health worker dressed in protective gear enquires about his vaccination status.

“It’s my first time,” he replies in a low tone.

“Don’t worry. You will not feel any pain or side effects,” she tells Khan.

After the health worker left, Khan gained strength, walked some steps and sat on a bench next to the vaccination room. Khan’s facial expression too changed as he saw people posing happily for pictures outside the vaccination room after getting their first jab.

 “It's my first visit to any hospital in the past one year,” says Khan. 

“Visiting hospital felt frightening experience to me,” he says

 Like many people, Khan’s life too was hugely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic as he had to close his shop and cut down on his family spending. 

He says the vaccination drive which started almost two months ago came as a hope for him and his family. However, rumours and myths around the vaccine kept him away from the drive.

Khan, a shopkeeper, is among many citizens who had missed their jab due to fear, though his children are excited about getting vaccinated. However, they are yet to be eligible for receiving the vaccination. 

“My children are not eligible for vaccination but they pursued me to take my first dose,” he says. “They want me to be safe in the second Covid wave.”

 Khan says he was earlier reluctant to get himself vaccinated because he believed some rumours spread through various social media. 

“But, now I am now willing to receive my first dose even as I am nervous,” he says.

 “I had no knowledge about the vaccine and its advantages so I was not coming forward,” he says.

 While Khan waited for his turn, some health workers turned people away, asking them to follow social distancing norms.

 "Like SOPs are important, vaccination is also important especially due to the dangerous second wave," says Khan.

After he got vaccinated, he too posed for the picture and giggled with other beneficiaries at the health centre.

 Now, he is among the 8 lakh people who have been vaccinated in Kashmir so far. 

 As per officials, the number of people vaccinated per day has increased three folds for the last week.

On Wednesday, more than 6000 people were vaccinated in different vaccination sites of Srinagar district as compared to just 600 a week ago. 

 “It's an encouraging trend especially when we are in the middle of the second wave," says Director Health Kashmir, Dr Mushtaq Rather.

 “People were earlier hesitant due to various reasons. We started rigorous IEC activities this month involving various stakeholders which resulted in the steep increase in the number of beneficiaries," he says.

On Tuesday, nearly 38,000 people received vaccination in a day, says the Director. 

 “The list of beneficiaries has seen a steep increase in a week. On April 14, only 13666 people had received the jab which clearly shows a 65 per cent increase in the number of beneficiaries per day,” he says.

 Similarly, the missed-out healthcare employees and frontline workers are also coming for vaccination in good numbers.

 As per the official figure, 114 healthcare employees received their first Covid-19 vaccination dose on April 20 while the number was quite low (21) a week ago.

 “On April 14, 83 frontline workers were vaccinated for the first time. This number goes to 335 in a day on Tuesday,” officials say.

 The trend shows that COVID-19 vaccinations are on the rise in the Valley. However, coronavirus cases too are increasing.

The number of cases is once again on the increase in J&K. On Tuesday, the region saw the highest number of cases (2030) in the last six months.

“Hospitals beds are also falling short as new cases, test positivity rates and hospital admissions are shooting upward. An increase in daily COVID-19 deaths is likely to follow,” says a health official.

“The new variants can also be a challenge in the coming days. It’s to be seen who will win the vaccination drive of the second Covid wave. For that, we have to be extra cautious and follow all SOPs of social distancing and hygiene,” he says.

 He warns that the region is now facing a more difficult phase than in earlier stages of the pandemic — strains of the coronavirus have mutated to spread more easily and to possibly cause more severe disease. 

According to the health department, 28 cases of new variants of Covid-19 infection have shown up in J&K and are increasingly dominant in Jammu.

 “Until a large proportion of the population will be fully vaccinated the people must adhere to strict social distancing measures such as masking, physical distancing and improving indoor ventilation to protect their own lives and those of their companions,” says the Director Health Kashmir.