The Union Health Ministry has asked States and Union Territories to conclude the first dose administration to all frontline workers by March 6 even as 62.6 lakh beneficiaries have been vaccinated against the pathogen since January 16 when the mega vaccination drive was launched.
The states and UTs have also been directed to conclude mop-up rounds latest by March 6. Earlier, the Health Ministry had asked all states and UTs to complete the administration of the first dose of Covid vaccines to their healthcare workers by February 20 and conclude mop-up round by February 24.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said during a press briefing that the aim should be that no willing beneficiary is left behind and for that, states and UTs are free to conduct as many mop-up rounds they want.
“They can do multiple rounds depending on their strength. The aim of the mop-up rounds is to ensure that those healthcare and frontline workers, who could not come during their scheduled vaccination sessions, will then be availed an opportunity afforded by the mop-up rounds to get their dose of vaccination,” he said.
However, Bhushan also said that those healthcare and frontline workers, who fail to appear even during the mop-up rounds, will be relegated to age specific appropriate vaccination rounds.
“Those who would not come forward even during the mop-ups, will receive vaccine doses when the age specific vaccination rounds will roll out for the general public. There, they will be provided vaccines on the age group they fall,” he added.
He said that India was the fastest country to reach 6 million vaccination doses of Covid-19 in 24 days.
Bhushan said within the country also some states have performed well, while others need to improve their vaccination coverage. “There are 12 states and UTs that have vaccinated more than 65 per cent of the registered healthcare workers. These states are Bihar (78.1 per cent), Tripura (77.1 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (76 per cent), Uttarakhand (73.7 per cent), Odisha (72.4 per cent), Mizoram (69.9 per cent), Himachal Pradesh (68.7 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (68 per cent), Andaman and Nicobar Islands (67.9 per cent), Rajasthan (67.2 per cent), Kerala (66.9 per cent) and Lakshadweep (66.7 per cent),” he said.
On the other hand, Bhushan said, there are 11 states and UTs that have vaccinated less than 40 per cent of healthcare workers. These are Puducherry (15.4 per cent), Manipur (21.3 per cent), Nagaland (21.5 per cent), Meghalaya (24.3 per cent), Chandigarh (28.7 per cent), Punjab (34.1 per cent), Dadra and Nagar Haveli (34. 5 per cent), Ladakh (35.8 per cent), Jammu and Kashmir (37.5 per cent) and Delhi (38 per cent).
Bhushan said a meeting of the National AEFI Committee was held on February 5 where discussions were held on 8 AEFI cases following COVID-19 vaccinations.
“Out of these 8 cases, causality assessment of 5 cases (2 deaths and 3 hospitalized) was conducted. Among hospitalised cases, all three were discharged. Two have been diagnosed as anaphylaxis; classified
as vaccine-product related reactions (known and expected reactions following vaccinations) and one case diagnosed as syncope: classified as immunisation triggered stress response (anxiety reaction),” he said.