As schools reopen, govt vows 2cr extra vax doses for staff

As many states gear up to open physical schools, more than two crore additional doses of Covid vaccine will be made available to them this month, the Centre said, urging states to vaccinate all school teachers on priority before Teachers’ Day on September

  • Updated On Aug 26, 2021 at 06:41 AM IST
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New Delhi: As many states gear up to open physical schools, more than two crore additional doses of Covid vaccine will be made available to them this month, the Centre said, urging states to vaccinate all school teachers on priority before Teachers’ Day on September 5.

Overall, more than 60 crore doses have been administered so far, with nearly 50% of the 94 crore adult population receiving at least the first dose. The latest 10 crore doses have been given in just 19 days. However, only 14% of adults are fully vaccinated with two doses.

“In addition to the plan to provide vaccines to every state this month, more than two crore vaccine doses are being made available,” health minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted in Hindi.

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More than two crore additional vaccine doses will be dispatched to the states from August 27 to August 31 to vaccinate school teachers and non-teaching staff on a priority basis. States/UTs may use UDISE (Unified District Information System of Education) data and coordinate with state education departments, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, Navodaya Vidyalaya Sangathan etc providing necessary fillip to this vaccination programme.

This assumes significance as schools have been closed for almost 18 months now since March last year. This has raised concerns about cognitive as well as physical growth of children.

Following Mandaviya’s announcement on Twitter, health secretary Rajesh Bhushan also chaired a high-level meeting with all states and UTs on Wednesday to review the progress of Covid vaccination. States were advised to focus on enhancing second dose coverage as well as immunisation of school teachers and staff in both government and private schools.

Amid rising concerns about a potential spike in cases during the upcoming festival season, the Centre advised states to ensure compliance of Covid appropriate behaviour and other precautionary measures in advance.

“States were advised to undertake targeted strategies like earmarking specific days/ specific vaccination sites (CVC)s/ specific timings every day/ separate queue to exclusively administer second dose of the vaccines. They were also advised to undertake widespread IEC campaigns for enhanced awareness among the beneficiaries,” the health ministry said.

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States have also been asked to identify and monitor districts whose vaccine coverage is lower than the state average.

  • Published On Aug 26, 2021 at 06:37 AM IST
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