States asked to step up COVID vax drive

February 7, 2021 37 Views No Comment

NEW DELHI, FEB 6 (AGENCIES) : Union Health Ministry has urged state and union territory authorities to exponentially increase the pace of coronavirus vaccination.

According to the Ministry of Health, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan reviewed the status and progress of the COVID vaccination drive with officials of states and union territories via video conferencing, on Saturday.

“They were urged to exponentially increase the pace of vaccination. Beneficiaries of inaugural vaccination day to start getting a second dose on February 13,” the ministry said.

The Union Health ministry said that 12 states have vaccinated less than 40% of their total health workers. Those states are Assam 39.9%, Delhi 37.1%, Punjab 33.7%, Jammu and Kashmir 33.6%, Dadra and Nagar Haveli 31.9%, Ladakh 31.7%, Tamil Nadu 28%, Chandigarh 27.7%, Meghalaya 21.7%, Nagaland 21%, Manipur 17.4% and Puducherry 13.6%.

Meanwhile, additional secretary Health, Manohar Agnan, said, “As of 6 pm on Saturday, the total number of persons being vaccinated is 56,36,868, out of which 52,66,175 are healthcare workers. It is 54.7 % of the total cohort of healthcare workers who are registered on CoWIN.”

“Since we started vaccinating frontline workers from February 2, a total of 3,70,693 frontline workers have also been covered — which is 4.5 % of the current database of frontline workers,” Agnani added.

According to Agnani, top 13 states that have vaccinated more than 60% of healthcare workers are Uttarakhand 71.5%, Bihar 76.6%, Madhya Pradesh 76.1%, Tripura 76%, Mizoram 69.7%, Uttar Pradesh 69%, Kerala 68.1%, Odisha 67.6%, Rajasthan 67.3%, Himachal Pradesh 66.8%, Lakshadweep 64.5%, Andaman 62.9%, and Chhattisgarh 60.5%.