States asked to scale up vaccination through stocks

New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday advised states and UTs to plan for scaling up vaccination coverage through available stocks and anticipated supplies till the end of June, while private hospitals were advised not to allow offline vaccine registration as all registrations should be online.

The Union Health Ministry, which held a review meeting through a video conference with administrators from states and UTs on the progress of vaccination, urged the states and UTs to make complete use of the available flexibilities on CoWIN to enhance the pace of vaccination drive, a Health Ministry statement said.

The visibility of anticipated supplies of each tranche with expected date of delivery up till June 15 for free supply by Government of India and till June 30 for directly procured vaccine doses by states has been provided by the Union Health Ministry to all states and UTs, the statement said.

They were advised to constitute a two or three member dedicated team to regularly coordinate with vaccine manufacturers for timely supplies of vaccine through 'other than Government of India channel' which also includes private hospitals (the list of private hospital along with doses contracted and supplied is being shared daily with states and UTs).

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan held a review meeting through video conference with administrators from states and UTs on the progress of vaccination, modifications on 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).

A detailed presentation on the progress of the countrywide vaccination drive was presented, with a focus on states and UTs that are lagging behind in providing coverage to the vulnerable population groups. The coverage of first and second doses to healthcare workers (HCWs) and frontline workers (FLWs) state-wise was reviewed. The scope to substantially speed up vaccination in this category was stressed, the statement said.

"Whereas states have been urged repeatedly to keep vaccine wastage below 1 per cent, many states such as Jharkhand (37.3 pc), Chhattisgarh (30.2 pc), Tamil Nadu (15.5 pc), Jammu and Kashmir (10.8 pc), Madhya Pradesh (10.7 pc) are reporting much higher wastage than the national average (6.3 pc)," the statement said.

States and UTs were advised to prepare a district-wise, Covid Vaccination Centre (CVC)-wise plan for administration of COVID-19 vaccine till June 15 and use multiple media platforms for dissemination of such a plan, the statement said.