The Centre has asked states and union territories to up the ante, particularly to those where vaccination coverage for the first and second dose is below the national average. To scale up the Covid-19 vaccination drive, the Union Health Ministry urged the states and UTs to come up with district-level plans, initiate a ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ (knock every door) month-long door-to-door campaign in the poor performing districts, introduce vaccine vans and review the exercise daily.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya held a meeting on Wednesday with health ministers to discuss ways to scale up vaccination and issues related to the Covid emergency response package across the country.
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During the meeting, it emerged that 10.38 Crore people from 17 states are due to get their second dose of the vaccine as on Wednesady. Over 1.6 crore such people from Uttar Pradesh, 1.1 Crore persons from Madhya Pradesh, 86 lakh in Rajasthan, 76 lakhs in Maharashtra, 72 lakh in Bihar and 60 lakh in Tamil Nadu are due for their second doses.
The central government has created a cutoff of 77% coverage for the first dose and 33% cut off for second dose — which are the national averages of first and second shot, respectively. The states where the coverage is below the cut-offs will now be devising the specific strategies. This assumes importance amidst the Centre trying to push for complete vaccination of all adults in the country by end of this year.
The Union Health Minister said adequate vaccine doses were available in the country, and more than 12 crore balance unulitised doses are available with the States for administering. “No district should be without full vaccination”, he exhorted the States. He further fixed an aim of covering all eligible with 1st dose of COVID-19 vaccine by end-November.
The Centre is preparing special initiative for sensitising people and telling them that in order to stay away from Covid the only protection is vaccine and it is important for every adult individual to take both the doses of the vaccine. The Centre may ask states to come up with a special drive for vaccination like the one which was launched earlier this year, ”If people are going not coming to the vaccination centre, we will go to their doorstep to provide them with the vaccine through a door-to-door vaccination drive,” the official has told News18.
Some states like Gujarat and Manipur have already started door-to-door vaccination drive, officials have pointed out. Officials said states have been asked to design district-level plans as the entire state may not be performing poorly but due to certain districts, their numbers are low. “They will review these plans on a daily basis and their state health departments will ensure that people are taking first and second shots,” a senior official from Health Ministry said.
State Health Ministers told Mandaviya that a primary reason for this is complacency in people to come for the second dose. “Over the last few weeks Covid cases have gone down considerably in most parts of the country and people feel they are fine with one dose of vaccine and are not going to get Covid. Some people feel they have developed immunity because of taking just one dose of vaccine,” an official said.
The State Health Ministers were requested to ensure continuous oversight on progress of the Vaccination Programme. Mandaviya urged the States to make regional and local level plans with all the stakeholders to reduce number of people with vaccination overdue and innovative strategies to encourage them to achieve their targets to review the planning and execution of district-wise plans for coverage of due beneficiaries of the second dose.
States under Focus
Bihar is one of the states with low vaccination coverage standing at 39% for first dose and 13% for second dose. Bihar has informed the centre that it is starting a campaign from Thursday where it aims to inoculate more than 25 lakh people in a day. Similarly, Jharkhand– where vaccination coverage for first dose is 38% and second dose is 13% — has told the centre that it is starting vaccination drives through “vaccination vans” which will travel in remote areas and villages to continue the inoculation drive.
West Bengal has said at the meeting that its drive is under the direct review of the chief minister Mamta Banerjee. “We have been told that the CM herself, along with the health secretary will be reviewing the situation and travelling to different districts to improve the coverage.” In West Bengal, the first dose coverage is 54% and second dose is 20%.
Uttar Pradesh has informed the centre that they have segregated the list of beneficiaries and now they will kickstart the door-to-door vaccination drive. In the state, the first dose has been taken by 41% of the population and the second dose is taken by 13 percent of the population. For example, there are 50,000 people in Uttar Pradesh who have crossed more than four weeks over and above the prescribed interval between two doses but still have not taken their second dose.
Officials clarified that no state was pulled up due to low coverage as they all presented their challenges. “It’s a bad idea to call any state a poor performer considering. It is wrong to compare Himachal Pradesh to UP and Sikkim to Bihar. They have a huge population spread over a huge area.”
The big figure of overdue cases is a concern. People overdue in Karnataka are at over 51 lakhs, Gujarat stands at over 42 lakh, Chhattisgarh is at 39.95 lakh, Telengana is at 36.6 lakh, West Bengal is at 36.16 lakh, Jharkhand at 33.8 lakh, Odisha at 33 lakh, Haryana at 27 lakh, Punjab at 26.4 lakh, Kerala at around 25 lakh and Assam at over 21 lakh, News18 has learnt.
Apart from discussing the status of vaccination coverage, the meeting discussed the status of Covid infections in states and trend. “States have been asked to keep an eye on the infection numbers and stress on conducting survillence through genome sequencing,” another official at the ministry of health said.
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