Union health minister Mansukh L Mandaviya on October 27 announced ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ campaign to provide COVID-19 vaccination in the poor-performing districts.
After a meeting with health ministers of various states in New Delhi, the minister said that under the campaign, health workers will go door to door to vaccinate people eligible for the second dose, and also for those who have not taken yet their first dose, for the next one month.
Highlighting the need to accelerate the pace and coverage of vaccination, he stated 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 vaccination.
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 CoWIN 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.
