Improve vaccine coverage, state told

SHILLONG, Sep 4: Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Saturday asked Meghalaya and a few other States and Union Territories to quickly administer the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine to the 18+ population.
He also advised Meghalaya and four other north-eastern States – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Nagaland – to focus on inoculating the 60+ people with both doses. The coverage in these States was found to be unsatisfactory.
“The vulnerability of the 60+ people to COVID-19 makes this exercise of prime importance,” Bhushan said while chairing a high-level review meeting the eight north-eastern States, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
The States were told that the administration of the first dose has progressively outpaced that of the second dose. They were asked to earmark doses and days and set targets for completing the exercise for the senior beneficiaries.
Details such as the stock of 0.5 ml syringes, vaccination coverage among special groups (transgenders, persons with disabilities, PWI and prisoners) and vaccination coverage among women, particularly pregnant and lactating women were also discussed.
The States/UTs were advised to closely monitor the stock from state vaccine stores to cold chain point, check rational distribution and restrict vaccine wastage to below 2%, update data on eVIN (electronic vaccine intelligence network) on a daily basis, check the supply of other denomination syringes according to availability (0.5 ml/ 1ml/ 2 ml/ 3ml auto-disable/re-use prevention syringe/disposable) for COVID-19 vaccination.