NEW DELHI: In a review meeting with officials from nearly 45 districts with low Covid vaccination coverage, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday asked authorities to prepare specific strategies with each village and town to take the inoculation level closer to the national average.
The meeting included districts with less than 50 per cent coverage of the first dose and also low inoculation coverage of the second dose.
As of now, nearly 77 per cent of the adult population in India has received at least one dose of Covid vaccine but the percentage of population covered with double vaccinations is less than 33 per cent.
The PM interacted with the DMs of districts in Jharkhand, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Chhattisgarh and Delhi.
While he 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, the PM also instructed the officials to make specific strategies for each village and every time.
For this, he suggested that teams of 20-25 people can be formed and also directed authorities to prepare region-wise timetables for local goals.
A government statement said that the PM spoke about the issue of rumours and misunderstandings about vaccination and suggested that that awareness is the only solution for this, asking the officials to take help from religious leaders.
Religious leaders are very enthusiastic about the vaccination campaign, he said urging for a special emphasis on taking their message to the public.
The PM also stressed on the need to move from making arrangements for taking people to the vaccination centre safely to administering the jabs door-to-door. Asking the health workers to reach every house with the slogan “Har ghar tika, ghar ghar tika” (vaccine at every doorstep), the PM asked them to adopt the spirit of “Har Ghar Dastak” or knocking on every doorstep.
“With the mantra of “Har Ghar Dastak” (knocking on every door), every household lacking the security net of a double dose of vaccine must be provided with it,” he added.
‘Tackle gap at local level’
PM Narendra Modi urges officials representing districts with less than 50 per cent vaccine coverage to address the gaps at local level.
He spoke about the issue of rumours and misunderstandings around vaccination