New Delhi, Oct 26 (FN Agency) Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has called a meeting of health ministers of all states and union territories (UTs) on Wednesday to deliberate upon the status of COVID-19 vaccination in the country, government sources said. The officials at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare told UNI that the expediting the second dose of vaccination is on the meeting’s agenda and the states/UTs would be urged to speed up the pace of inoculation with a focus on the second dose. The meeting is also important in the backdrop of the Centre’s highly ambitious target of 100 per cent vaccination of the adult population before the end of 2021. Dr NK Arora, chairperson, Covid-19 working group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI), told UNI that 22 crore eligible people have still not taken any dose of COVID-19 vaccines. “It’s imperative to bridge the gap among the beneficiaries of primary and final doses of COVID-19 immunisation as soon as possible if we have to maintain an upper hand over the COVID-19,” he said.
According to the government data, 75 per cent of the eligible population has received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines while only 31 per cent of them are fully vaccinated. Meanwhile, a senior government official said India is among the countries with the widest gap in both the doses of COVID-19 vaccines. According to global data, 82 per cent of people in China have received at least one dose and while 76 per cent have been given both the shots of COVID-19 vaccines. In the US, over 66 per cent of its population have got at least one shot of COVID-19 vaccines whereas more than 57 per cent are fully vaccinated. This gap in European countries is further reduced to a mere three per cent 69 per cent of their population have received the first dose whereas 66 per cent are vaccinated with both doses.
The officials noted several reasons from complacency among people after the second wave subsided to the long interval between two doses of Covishield which has accounted for 90 per cent of vaccination in the country “The gap between partially and fully vaccinated in can be attributed to the interval of 12-16 weeks between two doses of Covishield, whereas it is eight weeks in other nations,” a senior official said. “Besides, the complacency has hit those immunized with the first dose after the impact of deadly second wave withered. People are not coming to take the second shot. It is fuelling the gap further,” he added. Notably, the Union Health Ministry had also written a letter to all the states/UTs and urged them to speed up the vaccination after a meeting held with their representatives on October 23. The Union minister had surged the states and UTs “to focus on those beneficiaries who are waiting for their second dose after their interval period has been over.”