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2 million Covid-19 vaccine doses delivered in a day for the first time: Govt
The Prime Minister’s principal secretary PK Misra chaired a review meeting with the chief secretaries of all states and union territories as well as top officials from ministries and departments of health, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and Niti Aayog
India delivered more than 2 million coronavirus vaccine doses in a single day for the first time, the government said in a statement citing a briefing by the health secretary to top officials, amid efforts to further accelerate the campaign by federal as well as state officials.
The Prime Minister’s principal secretary PK Misra chaired a review meeting with the chief secretaries of all states and union territories as well as top officials from ministries and departments of health, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and Niti Aayog.
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The high-level meeting reviewed several aspects of the vaccination drive and states were asked to prepare a detailed roadmap for the next three months in order to maximise the coverage.
“Health secretary apprised the meeting on India achieving the landmark of administering more than 20lakh doses in a single day. The country is approaching 2.5 crore total vaccination coverage, powered by the fastest recent growth in vaccination globally,” the government said in a statement.
“States were asked to prepare a detailed roadmap for the next three months for achieving the same,” the statement issued by the press and information bureau added. The focus, particularly, should be on involving private sector in a big way, the states were advised.
“… leverage the private sector to the maximum to enhance coverage, taking advantage of the liberal enabling guidelines issued by the Centre; registering and activating as many private facilities as possible; providing sufficient stock of vaccines necessary for these centres to work at their optimum and providing any other facilitation required,” the states were told.
India aims to deliver 300 million doses to the most at-risk due to their jobs or health factors.
During the meeting, held over a video conference, a variety of topics were discussed, including how states can expand capacity; on-board and operationalise as many health facilities as possible as vaccination centres, widen access across states, districts, towns and villages, and especially identify existing geographical dark-zones through geo-spatial analysis.
States should also and maximise efficiency by keeping as many vaccination centres operational daily as possible, it was suggested.
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Another important advice was to enable smooth and safe service delivery by ensuring convenient registration for citizens, maximising available slots on Co-WIN with all vaccination centres publishing sessions for up to 4 weeks in advance.
States are being asked to encourage registration and prior appointments instead of walk-ins to avoid crowding at centres. This will help make it more convenient for citizen as well as giving authorities a forward view of expected demand to plan accordingly.
The overall progress must be reviewed on a real-time, disaggregated basis down to the district and block level, leveraging the end-to-end data integration of the Co-WIN platform, for continuous and customized management.
The stakeholders, who attended the meeting, included state chief secretaries, officers, secretaries of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, health research, member (health), Niti Aayog and chief executive officer of the National Health Authority.
