The Union Government on Wednesday launched "Har Ghar Dastak" campaign to accelerate the pace and coverage of covid-19 vaccination. The announcement in this regard was made by Union Health Minister, Mansukh L. Mandaviya.
The campaign will ensure that all people from the poor-performing districts are given easy access to Covid vaccination. It also aims at motivating the people from weaker performing districts to readily get their full Covid vaccination doses.
The announcement for the campaign was made after a meeting in this regard was held between health ministers from different states and the Centre at the Vigyan Bhawan.
Health Minister Mandaviya said that under the campaign, health workers for the next one month will go door to door to vaccinate people who are eligible for the second dose and also to approach those who have not taken their first dose.
The minister highlighted the need to speed up the coverage of vaccination to be able to vaccinate a larger portion of the population. He added that there are more than 10.34 crore people in the country who have not taken the second dose after the prescribed interval.
Mandaviya said that adequate vaccine doses were available in the country, and more than 12 crore unutilised doses are available with the states.
"No district should be without full vaccination," he told the states.
"Let us aim to cover all eligible with 1st dose of Covid-19 vaccine by end-November 2021," he said, urging the states to draw up regional and local level plans with all the stakeholders to reduce number of people overdue for vaccinatio.
He also urged for innovative strategies to encourage them to achieve their targets to review the planning and execution of district-wise plans for coverage of due beneficiaries of 2nd dose as available on Co-WIN portal.
"Covid has given us the opportunity to analysis the gaps in our existing health infrastructure. We have also learned that in a federal democracy, the Centre and states working in a synchronized collaborative mode can achieve significant milestones," Mandaviya said.
Highlighting PM Narendra Modi's vision about recently launched Health Infrastructure Mission, he said that with an outlay of Rs 64,180 crore, PM-AB HIM, announced in the Budget 2021-22, is the largest pan-India Health Infrastructure Scheme and would provide a much-needed fillip to India's capacity to address emergent public health issues.
This will give a major boost to India's healthcare infrastructure and make it more resilient, he added.
He urged the States to make strategies for timely utilisation of the allocated funds under the new Mission.
Mandaviya also requested his state counterparts to ensure that plans and implementation schedules for the ECRP-II are reviewed for timely completion of the proposed initiatives and schemes.
About India's philosophy of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world is one family)', he said that India's pharma sector is fulfilling this philosophy by catering to people with new cost-effective treatments and vaccines. "India supplied essential drugs to the world during first wave of Covid. The world reciprocated and helped India during the second wave," he said.
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Mandaviya assured the Health Ministers that the Centre will extend all support and assistance to the states/UTs in matters of health. "In a federal democracy, the Centre and states form a collaborative platform. We should work as a team for ensuring Swastha Bharat, Samruddh Bharat," he said.
Minister of State for Health Bharti Pravin Pawar was also present in the meeting, along with Health Ministers from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, and Jharkhand.
