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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said health workers should conduct door-to-door vaccinations as he conducted a review meeting on districts that have low vaccination rates.
The drive needs to be taken to each household with the mantra of Har Ghar Dastak (knock on every door), he said.
Modi interacted with district magistrates of around 45 districts in Jharkhand, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, and other states. These have less than 50 per cent coverage of the first dose and low coverage of the second dose of the Covid vaccine.
Modi cautioned against any laxity, saying “a new crisis can come”. The PM asked the officials to change gears from making arrangements for taking people to the vaccination centre to administering vaccines door to door.
“‘Har ghar tika, ghar ghar tika. Every household lacking the security net of a double dose of vaccine will be approached,” Modi said.
He also told the district officials to focus on the second dose of vaccination, warning that as the infections start reducing urgency in administering the vaccines comes down among the people. “You will have to contact those people who have not taken the second dose despite the stipulated time on a priority basis… ignoring this has created problems for many countries in the world,” Modi said.
Eight districts each in Manipal, Nagaland and Jharkhand where the vaccination coverage is less than 50 per cent were part of the meeting.
From vaccine hesitancy because of rumours to difficult terrain to local factors — including challenges created due to prevailing weather conditions — the district magistrates gave a variety of reasons for the low coverage.
“One special thing in the country’s fight against Corona was that we found new solutions and tried innovative methods… You will have to do your best to take your districts nearer the national average,” Modi said.
He called for equal attention to taking the second dose of the Covid vaccine, noting that whenever the cases of infection start decreasing, the feeling of urgency among people decreases.
He asked the officials to develop micro strategies, keeping in mind the experience so far to go for saturation of vaccination by addressing the gaps at local level.
Chief ministers, including Maharashtra’s Uddhav Thackrey and Chhattisgarh’s Bhupesh Baghel, were also present at the meeting.
The review meeting was held immediately upon the PM’s return from Glasgow where he attended COP26 meetings and the G20 in Rome before that.
Referring to his meeting with Pope Francis, Modi said officials should take help from local religious leaders to tackle rumours regarding vaccination. “Have always found leaders of all religions great advocates of vaccination,” he said.
“Make short videos of them (local leaders) of 2-3 minutes and make their videos popular, make them reach every house,” Modi said.
The district officials also presented an account of the steps that have been taken by them till now to overcome these challenges and also shared good practises adopted by them which has led to increase in coverage.
At the meeting, the Union Health Secretary gave an overview of the vaccination coverage in the country and also an account of balance vaccine dose availability in the states. The official also talked about special vaccination campaigns being run in the states to further improve vaccination coverage.
Addressing the meeting, the prime minister thanked the present chief ministers and said that their attention will encourage the district to work with more determination.
“We all have many months of experience related to vaccination. We have learned a lot and even our Asha workers have also learned how to fight with an unknown enemy. Now you have to move ahead while making micro-strategy.”
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