The Centre has asked States and Union Territories to exponentially increase the pace of vaccination. In a review meeting with states health secretaries and National Health Mission MDs, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan asked them to improve the momentum and accelerate the coverage as the country moves forward with the COVID vaccination drive. He said, there is a substantial scope for improvement in the number of average vaccinations per vaccination session. The State Health Secretaries were asked to analyze the daily variation in the number of average vaccinations and take necessary steps to increase them. States and UTs were advised to ensure 100 per cent saturation of people who have already been registered on CoWin digital platform. They were also asked to organize simultaneous vaccination sessions in the health facility wherever possible. Each State and UT was advised to devise a state specific strategy to achieve this target.
While there are 12 States and UTs that have achieved 60 per cent or more vaccination coverage of healthcare workers, they were all advised to improve the percentage coverage of vaccinated beneficiaries as there are many States and UTs that need to improve their performance on this parameter. States and UTs were advised to ensure regular review meetings of the State, District and Block Task Force to assess the emerging challenges, understand the ground issues and promptly address them at the appropriate levels.
The Union Health Secretary yesterday reviewed the status and progress of COVID vaccination with Health Secretaries and National Health Mission MDs of States and UTs through video conference. One of the largest such exercises globally, the countrywide COVID-19 vaccination programme was launched on 16th of last month by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Health Secretary appreciated the creditworthy performance of all States and UTs on COVID-19 vaccination. Elaborating on the global landmarks crossed by India, he underlined that India is the fastest country to reach the five million mark in COVID-19 vaccination in just 21 days. Several other countries which have had a head start, some as much as 60 days, have taken a longer time to reach this target.
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