E-Paper
Vaccination in India nears 2.5 cr doses, Centre gives 7-point agenda to states
The country started its vaccination drive from January 16 with priority given to all healthcare and frontline workers in the first phase. The second phase started from March 1 where doses are being administered to people above the age of 60 and those between 45 and 59 years with specific comorbidities.
The Centre said on Tuesday that 10,28,911 people were administered vaccine doses against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) till 7pm adding that the total vaccinations carried out in India climbed to 2,40,37,644. The country started its vaccination drive from January 16 with priority given to all healthcare and frontline workers in the first phase. The second phase started from March 1 where doses are being administered to people above the age of 60 and those between 45 and 59 years with specific comorbidities.
Earlier in the day, Dr PK Mishra, the principal secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, chaired a high-level meeting to review the status and progress of the vaccination drives across all states and Union Territories (UTs) in which the states and UTs were asked to take the drive a notch higher by going all out in increasing registration, administration of doses etc.
The meeting was attended by the chief secretaries and the officers involved in the vaccination effort in states and UTs, secretaries to the Centre from ministries/ department of health, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, health research, Member (Health), NITI Aayog and the chief executive officer (CEO) of the National Health Authority (NHA), the release added.
Mishra lauded all the government officials at the central and state level for playing an important role in the successful rollout of the vaccination drive in India — which is the largest in the world but also pointed out that this progress had to be continued in a sustained manner. The chief secretaries of states and UTs along with senior officials gave details about the progress of vaccinating beneficiaries in their respective regions. During the meeting, cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba advised states to ramp up the pace of vaccination and cover as many beneficiaries as possible in a short duration due to the country’s large population. He further told them to prepare a plan for the coming three months to achieve the same.
As the total doses administered are nearing 2.5 crore, here are the seven instructions that the Centre gave to states and UTs during the meeting:
> States and UTs were asked to expand the capacity of their vaccination drive for both public and private sector, by on-boarding and operationalising as many health facilities and vaccination centres as possible.
> The Centre said that equitable and easy access for Covid-19 vaccines should be given all across the country- states, districts, towns and villages and especially towards identifying existing geographical dark-zones through geospatial analysis.
> States and UTs should ensure that maximum vaccination centres are operating on a daily basis. Capacity utilisation should be enhanced in these centres and wastage should be minimised.
> The Centre asked states and UTs to open vaccination session for registration on the Co-Win app for at least four weeks in advance. States and UTs were also asked to optimise centre-level planning with appropriate provisions made for crowd management, drinking water and other facilities for citizens. “Ensuring real-time authentication and certification as much as possible for the convenience of the citizen as well as a check against misuse,” the Centre added.
> The Centre said that registrations should be encouraged for vaccination over ‘walk-in’ mode and the entire process of facilitating it should be made convenient for all citizens. Authorities should also be given a ‘forward’ view with regard to expected demand so that they can plan properly and further avoid the overcrowding of beneficiaries.
> “Optimising the supply chain down to the vaccination centre through efficient and equitable distribution while preventing any stock-piling or hoarding, with the assurance of there being no shortage of vaccine doses in the future,” the Centre said.
> The Centre pointed out that the progress of the drive to administer vaccine doses to beneficiaries should be reviewed on a real-time basis till the district and block level and leveraging the end-to-end data integration of the Co-WIN app to ensure continuous, customised management.
On Monday, the Rajasthan government asked the Centre for additional doses, but the Union healministry on Tuesday clarified that there was no shortage in the state. This is the first time that private hospitals have been made a part of the vaccination drive and the ministry has also allowed 24X7 vaccination for maximising the number.
