Union Health Secretary reviews Covid vaccination drive 11 North Eastern and Hill States, UTs

New Delhi [India], September 4 : Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Saturday chaired a high-level review meeting with 11 north-east and hill states and Union Territories over the COVID vaccination drive.
These States/UTs include Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand.
At the outset, the Health Secretary underlined that the states and UTs need to quickly saturate the first dose coverage among the beneficiaries above 18 years, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Bhushan also urged the states to focus on the beneficiaries above 60 year age group as the coverage of both the doses in this category is "unsatisfactory" in Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Meghalaya.
The details of State/UT-wise balance stock of 0.5 ml Syringes, Vaccination Coverage among Special Groups (Transgender Persons, Persons with Disabilities, PWI and Prisoners), COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage among women particularly pregnant and lactating women was also discussed, read the release.
States and UTs were advised to closely monitor the stock from State Vaccine Stores to Cold Chain Point, check rational distribution and restrict vaccine wastage to below 2 per cent, update data on eVIN (electronic vaccine intelligence network) on a daily basis, check the supply of other denomination syringes as per availability (0.5 ml/ 1ml/ 2 ml/ 3ml Auto Disable/Re-use Prevention Syringes(RUP)/Disposable) for COVID vaccination.