Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday held a review meeting with senior officials of districts having low COVID vaccination coverage.

The meeting included districts with less than 50% coverage of the first dose and low coverage of the second.

The Prime Minister interacted with the District Magistrates of over 40 districts in Jharkhand, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya and other States.

Micro strategies

The Prime Minister asked the officials to develop micro strategies keeping in mind the experience so far to go for saturation coverage of vaccination by addressing the gaps at local level.

He also instructed the officials to make specific strategies for each village, each town if need be and suggested that this can be done by forming a team of 20-25 people depending on the region.

Directing officials to prepare region-wise timetables for local goals, the Prime Minister said, “You will have to do your best to take your districts nearer the national average.”

According to a release by the Central Government, Mr. Modi spoke about the issue of rumours and misunderstandings about vaccination.

He suggested that awareness is the only solution for this and asked the officials to take help from religious leaders.

The Prime Minister noted that religious leaders are very enthusiastic about the vaccination campaign and urged for a special emphasis on taking their message to the public.

He also asked the officials to change gears from making arrangements for taking people to the vaccination centre safely to administering the jabs door-to-door.

Vaccine at every doorstep

Urging the health workers to reach every house with passion “har ghar tika, ghar ghar tika” (vaccine at every doorstep), the Prime Minister asked them to go in the spirit of “Har Ghar Dastak” knocking on every doorstep. “Now we are preparing to take the campaign to each household. With the mantra of ‘Har Ghar Dastak’, knock on every door, every household lacking the security net of a double dose of vaccine.”

The Prime Minister cautioned that equal attention needed to be paid to the second dose because whenever the cases of infection start decreasing, sometimes the feeling of urgency decreases.

“You will have to contact those people who have not taken the second dose despite the stipulated time on a priority basis…ignoring this has created problems for many countries.”

He emphasised that under the free vaccine for all campaign, India created a record of administering about 2.5 crore doses in a day which bears testimony to its capabilities.

Asking the officials to learn from the good practices of their colleagues in better performing districts, the Prime Minister emphasised that approaches should be suitable for the local needs and the environment.

Issues and challenges

The District Magistrates gave an account of the issues and challenges they are facing which has resulted in low coverage.

They highlighted issues like rumours resulting in vaccine hesitancy, difficult terrain and challenges due to weather conditions in recent months. They also presented an account of the steps they have taken till now to overcome these challenges. They also shared good practices adopted by them which has led to increase in coverage.

The Prime Minister discussed the issue of vaccine hesitancy and the local factors behind it in detail.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan gave an overview of the vaccination coverage.