The Centre today reviewed its COVID-19 vaccination drive and monitored progress of vaccination in states, modifications on the CoWIN software that will provide more flexibility to vaccine administrators, along with the effective implementation of SoPs for containment and management of COVID (particularly in areas underserved by health infrastructure).
The meeting was chaired by Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan. During the meeting, a detailed presentation on the progress of the countrywide vaccination drive across the country was presented, with focus on States/UTs that are lagging behind in providing coverage to the vulnerable population groups. The coverage of first and second doses to the Healthcare Workers (HCWs) and Frontline Workers (FLWs) State-wise was reviewed.
The scope to substantially speed up vaccination in this category was stressed.
States such as Jharkhand (37.3%), Chhattisgarh (30.2%), Tamil Nadu (15.5%), Jammu and Kashmir (10.8%), Madhya Pradesh (10.7%) are reporting much higher wastage than the national average (6.3%). The Centre has been urging the states to reduce wastage of vaccines.
The Centre advised states/UTs to plan for scaling up of vaccination coverage through available stocks and anticipated supplies till end of June, 2021. The visibility of anticipated supplies of each tranche with expected date of delivery up till June 15 2021 for free supply by Govt. of India and till June 30 for directly procured vaccine doses by states have been provided by the Union Health Ministry to all States/UTs.