"Mission Indradhanush to start on August 7, continue till October 14", Assam Health Minister Keshab Mahanta

Guwahati (Assam) [India], August 5 : Assam Health and Family Welfare Minister Keshab Mahanta on Saturday said that Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 5.0 to vaccinate children will start on August 7 and will continue till October 14.
"There will be 3 rounds of six days each per month. The first round will be from August 7 to 12, the second round will be from September 11 to 16 and the third round will be conducted from October 9 to 14," Keshab Mahanta said.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma will launch the program on August 7 at Borjuri, Bokakhat of Golaghat district where the state Health Minister will also be present.
Health Minister Mahanta said that the mission Indradhanush 5.0 will focus on reaching unvaccinated or partially vaccinated children aged between 0 to 5 years, ensuring that every child receives life-saving vaccines.
This initiative also aims to achieve 95 per cent vaccination coverage of two doses of Measles and Rubella containing Vaccine (MRCV) in every district across the state with a focus on the elimination of measles and rubella (MR), two highly contagious and vaccine-preventable diseases.
The drive will also cover any left-out pregnant women with Td vaccine.
"Mission Indrdhanush is also an opportunity to roll out the U-WIN platform throughout the state and country for digitalization of paper-based recording and reporting of immunization in line with the success and experience of the CO-WIN platform which was used during the Covid-19 vaccination," Mahanta added.
Mission Indradhanush will be conducted across all the districts under the leadership and supervision of the District Commissioners and will be implemented by the district establishment of the Health and Family Welfare Department with the active support of other stakeholder departments and UN agencies.
Mahanta said that the aim is to cover approximately one lakh left out, dropout children between 0-5 years of age and pregnant women. New beneficiaries would be added over and above the target set for the first sound in the subsequent 2nd and 3rd rounds in the months of September and October respectively.
"During Mission Indradhanush special focussed areas would be Tea Gardens, Char areas, forest areas, hilly areas, migratory population and areas that experience floods frequently," he added.
The Health Minister informed that India has made significant strides in vaccination coverage in 2022, as revealed in the latest WHO and UNICEF estimates of national immunization coverage (WUENIC) report.
"The country successfully reduced the number of zero-dose children from 2.7 million in 2021 to 1.1 million in 2022," he added.
This also reflects Assam’s achievement in having vaccine confidence amongst its people with 85 per cent of full immunization coverage, and the Government’s unwavering commitment to fight against vaccine-preventable diseases.
Under Universal Immunization Program, the Government of Assam continues to conduct regular immunization sessions to provide vaccines against 12 serious childhood vaccine-preventable diseases.
"Adolescents and Pregnant women also receive two doses of tetanus-diphtheria vaccine under the program," the Health Minister added.
The vaccines are provided free of cost across the state. Annually more than 3,00,000 vaccination sessions are held as health facilities and outreach sessions to provide vaccination to children up to 0-5 years and pregnant women.
The Assam Health Minister appealed to the public and social influencers to support and assist government efforts on IMI 5.0 in achieving full immunization coverage in their respective districts.