Focus on 2nd dose COVID-19 vaccine coverage of health workers: Centre to states

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The Centre on Thursday advised states to focus on increasing second dose coverage among healthcare workers (HCW) and frontline workers (FLW). In a high-level meeting chaired by Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, low vaccination coverage was highlighted and states were also informed about the modifications of the CoWIN platform to make it more effective.

"States/UTs were asked to sharpen their focus and prepare effective plans for expediting the second dose administration for the HCWs and FLWs. States were asked to dedicate special time slots or sessions for the exercise," a statements said.

As per the statement, the national average for the 1st dose administration among the HCWs is 82 per cent and the national average for the second dose among HCWs is only 56 per cent. 18 States/UTs including Punjab, Maharashtra, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Assam have coverage below the national average in this aspect.

For FLWs, the national average of 1st dose coverage is 85 per cent but the national average of second dose coverage for FLWs is only 47 per cent. 19 States/UTs have reported 2nd dose coverage of FLWs less than the national average. Among them are Bihar, Haryana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry, Telangana, Karnataka, and Punjab.

Additionally, the CoWIN platform is now available in 12 languages. The platform is equipped to register UDID unique disability ID card as well.

The Union Health Secretary also reiterated that universal coverage and full protection in this group is crucial to protect the pandemic healthcare response. He added that timely completion of vaccination schedule is important for conferring full protection to beneficiaries.

He also highlighted the private sector's less than adequate participation in the COVID vaccination drive.

As part of new features in the Co-WIN portal in light of the new vaccination guidelines, rectifications can be done once in the personal information in any of the two fields.

"Change in vaccine type, date of vaccination, vaccination events particular not recorded in Co-WIN can be made with the help of District Immunization Officers (DIO)s. These changes can't be done by users themselves but users have to request the DIO," the statement added.

It further said that DIOs are allowed to edit/update the Vaccine Utilisation Reports (VURs) submitted by the vaccinators and make corrections, if needed.

"States can offer walk-in registrations for the age group 45+ sessions if onsite capacity is greater than 0. Walk-in sessions for the 18-44 group can also be organized if "onsite-dose 2" capacity is greater than 0. States were advised to widely publicise about this at the CVCs," the statement said. 

(With ANI inputs)

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