Har Ghar Dastak campaign

Context:

Union Health Ministry reviews status and progress under “Har Ghar Dastak” campaign with States/UTs

About Har Ghar Dastak campaign:

• The central government will soon start a mega vaccination campaign called ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ to boost COVID-19 vaccination efforts in the poor-performing districts.
• The Har Ghar Dastak campaign aims to achieve full vaccination by November end
• Under the campaign, the healthcare workers will go door-to-door to vaccinate those who are due to take their second dose and also those who have not taken the first dose.
• The campaign aims to encourage people to take the COVID vaccine.

Progress so far:

The ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ nation-wide COVID-19 vaccination campaign has resulted in a hike of 5.9% in the 1st dose coverage (till 30^th Nov), and an appreciable jump of  11.7% in 2nd dose COVID-19 vaccination coverage during the campaign.

The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 125 Crore today. Out of which, 79.13 Crore (84.3%) beneficiaries have been vaccinated for 1st dose and 45.82 Crore (49%)received 2nd dose of vaccine as per the provisional report.

States under focus

Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh are the states under focus because of low vaccination rate. For instance, In Bihar, vaccination coverage stands at 39% for first dose while 13% for second dose.

States were advised to:

1. Saturate all eligible beneficiaries with 1^st dose.
2. Devise targeted plans in context of doses given in Aug and Sept’21 to ensure coverage of all beneficiaries due for 2^nd dose by exponentially increasing the pace of vaccination.
3. Ensure that the available vaccine in the state is consumed timely& no dose expires in both Government &private facility.
4. Seven States (Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh & West Bengal) whereZyCoV-D vaccine will be used initially may identify districts with high number of first dose left out for introduction of the vaccine.
5. National training for ZyCoV-D has been completed. Selected States should plan sessions based on pharmajet injector and identify vaccinators to be trained for using it for vaccination.

Mission COVID Suraksha

• The Government of India has sanctioned Rs.900 crores for the Phase I of the Mission COVID Suraksha, for a period of 12 months
• This mission will accelerate the development of approximately 5-6 vaccines for coronavirus. However, a total of 10 vaccine candidates have been supported by DBT till now
• Complete focus on the preclinical and clinical development of the vaccine is to be taken care of, for quick release and to restrict any further spread of the Novel coronavirus in the country
• With an end-to-end focus from preclinical development through clinical development and manufacturing and regulatory facilitation for deployment, would consolidate all available and funded resources towards an accelerated product development
• The grant for Research and Development (R&D) of the Indian COVID-19 vaccine will be provided by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT)
• It will be implemented by a dedicated Mission Implementation Unit at the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC)

Development of an indigenous, affordable and accessible vaccine to curb the spread of the coronavirus is one of the biggest targets which the Government of the country aims to achieve. The success of this mission will complement the Indian aspiration of Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. 

Source: PIB

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