'Review coverage of Covid 2nd dose amongst adolescents daily'

New Delhi: Noting that timely completion of the Covid vaccination schedule is important to confer full protection of vaccines to the recipients, the Centre has asked the states and Union Territories to review the coverage of second dose amongst adolescents daily.

In a letter to the states and UTs, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said a tailored communication strategy, focused on the adolescent population and their caregivers, should also be rolled out to make them aware of the timely completion of vaccination schedule and sustain their vaccine confidence.

"I hereby request you to direct the concerned officials to accelerate the 2nd dose coverage amongst due beneficiaries aged 15-18 years while also ensuring that remaining beneficiaries for 1 dose also receive it in a time-bound manner," Bhushan said.

With 1,61,386 people testing positive for the infection in a day, India's total tally of cases increased to over 4.16 crore, according to the Union Health ministry data updated on Wednesday.

The death toll has climbed to 4,97,975 with 1,733 fatalities reported during the 24-hour period, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The active cases decreased by 1,21,456 to reach 16,21,603 — 4.20 per cent of the total infections — while the country's recovery rate stands at 94.60 per cent, the ministry said.

Noting that timely completion of COVID-19 vaccination schedule is important to confer full protection of vaccines to the recipients, Bhushan said: "It is important that the coverage of the second dose amongst adolescents is reviewed daily at your level at state/UT and similar review is undertaken at the district level as well."

The vaccination of 15-17 years old started on January 3 and till now 63 per cent have been covered with the first dose in a span of less than a month.