Centre’s revised guidelines likely to boost Covid-19 vaccination drive in Uttar Pradesh

The central government’s revised guidelines for implementation of the national Covid vaccination programme are likely to give a thrust to the vaccination drive in Uttar Pradesh

The central government’s revised guidelines for implementation of the national Covid vaccination programme are likely to give a thrust to the vaccination drive in Uttar Pradesh. The new guidelines will be effective from June 21.

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Health and family welfare minister Jai Pratap Singh said the central government had announced that vaccine doses would be allocated to states on criteria such as population, disease burden and progress of vaccination.

“The central government has also stated that wastage of vaccine will affect the allocation of the doses negatively,” he said.

“Uttar Pradesh has already cut the vaccine wastage from 20% to 2%. We are working to bring the wastage down to zero. Some districts are already reporting zero wastage of Covid vaccines. The health department is giving regular training to vaccinators to check wastage,” he said.

“Uttar Pradesh with a population of over 24 crore has already given 2.07 crore doses, the highest in the country. The state government is working to increase the daily administration of doses,” Singh said.

The Uttar Pradesh government had floated a global tender on May 5 to procure 40 million doses of Covid vaccines from national and international vaccine manufacturers. The state government had extended the last date for the submission of the bids, first to May 31 and then to June 10.

Now with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement that the central government will supply the required vaccine doses to the states, the state government need not procure the vaccines from private companies.

“I hope no company will submit the bid in view of PM’s announcement on Monday,” Singh said.

Uttar Pradesh has already procured 10 lakh doses of Covid vaccines for beneficiaries in the 18-45 age group from the Hyderabad-based Bharat- Biotech and the Pune-based Serum Institute of India.

The state government has made advance payment to both the companies to ramp up its vaccine stock.

“Once both the companies complete the supply of the doses, we will get the remaining stock from the central government,” he said.

Under the revised guidelines, the central government has made it clear that all the citizens, irrespective of their income status, are entitled to free vaccination. Those who have the ability to pay are encouraged to use vaccination centres at private hospitals.

The central government has also told the state government that CoWIN portal provides every citizen the facility of convenient and safe pre-booking of appointment for vaccination.

“All government and private vaccination centres will also provide onsite registration facility, available both for individuals as well as group of individuals. The state government will finalise the procedure soon. The state government has already provided the booking facility at common service centres,” he said.