New Delhi: Forty-eight districts in 13 states with Covid vaccine first dose coverage ranging from 16.1-49.9 per cent will be targeted in the first leg of a door-to-door vaccination campaign. Most of these districts are in the Northeast.
Compiled by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the list was shared with states during the meeting of state health ministers with Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya earlier this week, officials told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
The decision to go door to door under the ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ campaign was taken in the meeting, to ensure full first dose coverage in the country by November-end, added sources.
As of 27 October, Kiphire district of Nagaland clocked a first dose coverage of 16.1 per cent against a national average of over 77 per cent. The most number of districts are in Jharkhand where 10 of the 24 districts figure in the low-coverage list.
According to officials, the principal factor among the laggard states is their remoteness rather than vaccine hesitancy.
However, the list also includes Haryana’s Nuh, which is just about 200 km from the national capital, and has a substantial Muslim population. Tiruvallur in Tamil Nadu, where the first dose coverage stands at 43.1 per cent, is also in the list.
At a time when the large number of overdue second doses have already sent alarm bells ringing, amid dipping daily vaccination numbers, the Government of India wants these districts to be taken up on priority, ahead of the upcoming festive season so as to prevent a spike in Covid cases in the country, officials said.
Throughout October, the average daily vaccinations have been about 56.50 lakh a day — a far cry from the 78.69 lakh daily average in September. This is largely because people don’t want to get vaccinated during the festive season for fear of the minor adverse reactions such as fever etc, added officials.
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10 crore second doses also pending
In the meeting with states, Health Minister Mandaviya highlighted the fact that there are over 10.34 crore people in the country who have not taken the second dose after the prescribed interval.
“There is a need to reach out to those people and get them vaccinated. They are not vaccine hesitant in the classical sense because they have already taken the first dose. It is possible the fact that the numbers have been down lately has caused them to become complacent or they just want the festive season to be over. Either way they need to be vaccinated,” a senior health ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
“The supply situation has eased considerably now,” the official added.
Till 27 October, 11.81 crore doses of Covid vaccines were available with states. In order to raise the coverage of both the second dose and the first dose particularly in the low-coverage districts, the Centre has asked states to make regional and local level plans with all the stakeholders.
In his meeting with states, Mandaviya also urged for innovative strategies to encourage them to achieve their targets to review the planning and execution of district-wise plans for coverage of due beneficiaries of second dose as available on Co-WIN portal.
(Edited by Amit Upadhyaya)
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