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PM Modi to take stock of slow Covid-19 vaccine drive in 40 districts

By, Hindustan Times, New Delhi
Nov 01, 2021 06:23 AM IST

During the meeting, which will also be attended by several chief ministers, the Prime Minister will interact with district magistrates of more than 40 districts where less than 50% of adult population has received at least one shot of the vaccine, and those districts that have low coverage of the second dose, officials said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold on November 3 a review meeting with senior officials from more than 40 districts in the country that continue to see a significant lag in coverage of adult population with the Covid-19 vaccine, the central government said on Sunday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (File photo)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (File photo)

During the meeting, which will also be attended by several chief ministers, the Prime Minister will interact with district magistrates of more than 40 districts where less than 50% of adult population has received at least one shot of the vaccine, and those districts that have low coverage of the second dose, officials said.

According to government data, there are 48 districts in India that are still seeing a heavy lag in vaccination coverage as they are yet to administer even a single shot to more than half their adult population at a time when the national average for such coverage is more than 77%.

“Immediately after returning to the country after attending the G20 Summit and COP26, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will hold a review meeting with districts having low vaccination coverage, on 3rd November at 12 noon via video conferencing. The meeting will include districts with less than 50% coverage of the first dose and low coverage of the second dose of Covid vaccine,” said an official statement issued from the Prime Minister’s Office.

“Prime Minister will interact with district magistrates of over 40 districts in Jharkhand, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, and other states with districts having low vaccination coverage. Chief ministers of these states will also be present on the occasion,” the statement read.

The lowest coverage by at least one dose of the vaccine among these districts is 16.1% in Nagaland’s Kiphire, while at 49.6% Bihar’s Araria district fares slightly better in the list, as per government data from October 27. North West district in Delhi (48.2%), Aurangabad (46.5%), Nanded (48.4%), Akola (49.3%), Deoghar (44.2%) and West Singhbhum (47.8%) are some of the prominent districts among the identified 48 districts that have to catch up to the national average, according to government data.

These districts are located across 13 states, and are a focus of Centre’s attention for faster scale-up of the vaccination coverage in coming days that includes launching a dedicated campaign for conducting door-to-door vaccinations.

On Tuesday, Union health minister held an in-person review meeting with health ministers of all states to take up the issue and suggested way for a faster scale-up of the vaccination drive, especially focusing on those beneficiaries whose second dose is now overdue. There are currently 103.4 million beneficiaries are due for their second Covid-19 vaccine shot as per government data.

These people have not taken their second shot even after the prescribed interval has passed for their respective vaccines.

“We’re going to launch a mega vaccination campaign ‘har ghar dastak’. We’re decided that for the next one month, healthcare workers will go door-to-door to vaccinate people eligible for second dose and also those who have not taken the first dose, especially focusing on the poorly performing districts…” said Mansukh Mandaviya, Union health minister after the meeting.

The health minister also assured states that adequate vaccine doses were available in the country to meet the required demand, and at least 120 million balance and unutilised vaccine doses remained available with states.

The Centre procured about 280 million Covid-19 vaccine doses, including 220 million Covishield and 60 million Covaxin doses, in the month of October. The volume is likely to go up with the introduction of Zydus Healthcare’s ZyCoV-D vaccine in November, officials have said.

“Ideally everyone should get vaccinated, but more important is to cover all of those who are at a higher risk of developing severe form of the disease. It has been well-established that vaccination against Covid significantly helps in averting death due to Covid and also reduces risk of hospitalisation,” said Dr GC Khilnani, former head, pulmonology and sleep medicine department, New Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

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